U.S. Navy swapping $38K periscope joysticks for Xbox controllers on subs (2017)

Indeed. I've actually purchased the components for rugged joysticks (e.g., as found on things like motorized wheelchairs and industrial equipment). The joystick unit itself, with rubber "boot" and knob, is about 200 bucks from a catalog supplier. Presumably it has some kind of enclosure. But still, either something's going into the joystick, that we don't know about, or somebody's padding the cost a bit. I wouldn't presume that there isn't some something that makes the xbox joystick cost more than 30 bucks when used in the same application.