Nunn-McCurdy cost controls meet procurement politics

The Nunn-McCurdy Amendment appears here as a guardrail for runaway defense programs, with the focus on how people behave around the rule. Low headline bids, later add-ons, and arguments over whether essential requirements were always implied can all shape a cost review. Competing firms have incentives to lobby as lower-cost alternatives, while a troubled program's incumbent managers and restructuring consultants have their own reasons to influence the outcome. A sensible cost-growth trigger therefore creates a political contest rather than an automatic cancellation. The same incentives matter in naval procurement whenever a major ship or weapon program crosses statutory cost thresholds.