Government procurement must preserve continuity under shock

Commercial procurement rewards efficiency under expected conditions, whereas government procurement must preserve reliability and continuity when assumptions fail. Natural disaster, pandemic, and war are shocks that public institutions should be able to absorb. Armed forces face the additional certainty that an enemy will damage equipment and infrastructure deliberately. In a peer conflict, few sites can be assumed safely beyond attack, so maintenance capacity and redundancy cannot be treated as waste. This policy logic supports investing in repair ships even when commercial accounting favours leaner support.