Do you have any source for the claim that there is a factory with the sole purpose of assembling and disassembling M1 Abrams tanks without actually delivering or upgrading any of them?
That sounds very implausible, bordering on conspiracy theory.
It’s bullshit. I write software for autonomous tanks. Part of our contract is to have procedures for literally everything, which includes how to take apart and put back together the robot in order to be able to maintain them.
We of course run these procedures while writing and formally verifying them, before handing them to the customer, not running them would be folly.
Whatever this story is sounds like the worst kind: a small nugget of truth surrounded in a giant ball of shit.
Even more than that, a customer doesn’t just hand us a pile of money and say “talk to you again in 2 years” far from it. They literally “status the status” once or more weekly. If the answer to the question of “what is the plan this week” has the answer of “we’re out of work so we’re just charging you pad our profits” won’t play.
Also, building tanks is fucking hard, I sincerely doubt any company in the industry isn’t using every penny they have to solve problems and deliver a good product.
For those that scoff at the last bit: companies are in the business of making money, and if you deliver an inferior product, you won’t get another contract.
That sounds very implausible, bordering on conspiracy theory.