>but they're asking way too much money to reconstitute an old production line so a scrappy startup like this could prove themselves valuable.

The air force is currently going on an in-housing and "agile all the things" binge because they're sick of 30yr of getting screwed by contractors.

My money is on Northrop giving them a sky high but not without precedent price and someone saying "screw it, this is the perfect thing to learn how to do"