It costs almost as much as a F9 with almost I believe less than a tenth of the performance. It only exists so that Europe can claim they have access to space as long as your payload is tiny

So your claim was wrong

Unfortunately, currency-adjusted capability/cost in (eh, edit, most) classes of US military aircraft and surface vessels has been dropping like a rock in comparison to peer competitors since 2013, which - rather obviously, by this point in world history - by peer competitor we mean PLAAF/PLAN/PLARF.

Most of the reason for this is the fact our peers are semi-command economies, and can steer "commodified" production into dual-use at the tip of a hat. Also, it's called "command" for a reason; they can get away with horrible shit. But another part of the reason is the one that's a bit more obvious: an unholy matrimony of single supplier syndrome with utterly complete regulatory capture. Oh, and assholes, who love the hell out of getting fifteen vacation homes from nonexistent projects.

It's the second one I can do something about, so it's always on the front of my brain (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻