There are lots of things that people would never do if they were paying for them directly. Government contracts are notoriously padded and wasteful and often serve the interests of a select few with the right connections; it's one of the strongest arguments against big government, even if we assume the government has good intentions and is making good democratic decisions rather than oligarchic ones (which I don't think can realistically be argued to be the case here).

So, yeah, it's wasteful of taxpayer money, but also extremely profitable for the few people who have the lobbyists and the ability to exploit the system.