USG went through a complete procurement process for ATC. For any who know that process, it is quite thorough for something that big. I imagine maybe some of the bigs also competed. Lockheed, Boeing, AWS, etc.
It was not a DEI contract. Now consider what was spent on the governments side for that process. Probably more than tree fiddy.
Contract was awarded in 2023. Assume it had a 180 mobilization, launch. Hire people, set up offices, all that shit. Then the right equipment is ordered. Cables, etc.
I bet they had a 12 month window for all that. That is before 1 component is installed.
Fast forward. Trump says it is not working (he read a GAO report?) Elon says he can do it. Elon gets the contract.
All of that cost from USG saying they were thinkng about a new contract for ATC until the decision to say nah, starlink, was already paid for. Probably 5 years of effort (so the contract started the bid process when who was President?) is gone.
Now we start over. Starlink have a out of the box, ready to go system, fully integrated? All parts ordered? Staff on board? Cleared?
Yay?