Is the $400B F-35's 'brain' broken?

>It is my opinion that if any government tech project management is outsourced completely, we'll have better technology, cheaper and faster.

No, you won't. The problem is that the government will only outsource these projects to proven companies which are already in the business of handling government contracts. This means it's just the same crappy companies which do ALL their business this way, and are experts at bilking the government out of tons of money for little productivity. Other companies won't bother bidding, because the government bidding and procurement rules are so byzantine that they just don't bother. The government itself already recognizes that this is a big problem (that lots of commercial companies refuse to do business with it), but they have no real solutions for it other than trying to brainwash these companies into changing their minds.

The other problem as far as some projects, like weapons systems, is that if the contractor develops the technology all on their own and has complete ownership of it, the cost to the government is even higher than when the government gets involved and drives development costs up. The dev cost might be lower when the contractor does it all themselves, but then the per-unit cost is through the roof because they get the government to standardize on it, but now they're the sole supplier, so after it's designed-in, they jack up the prices. When the government has partial ownership of the IP, they have more freedom in getting different suppliers to compete, but then the development costs are high, plus with the consolidation in the defense industry there aren't many bidders so again costs are high.

There really isn't any way to win AFAICT. The government needs to completely revamp its broken systems in many areas, including procurement, and in hiring/firing/HR, and other areas like how various agencies are managed and what they're allowed to do with their money. For instance, government office facilities are a disaster in many places: the buildings are WWII-era old and falling apart, but that's because they're not allowed to build a new building without an Act of Congress (literally). Of course, this stuff isn't going to change; there's too many chefs in the kitchen.

I know, I should have been more clear; my comment is about government's reckless spending and poor priorities. This money could have funded a single payer system.

I am not blaming ACA. It was a good temporary patch on a completely unsustainable system.