As a modeler, 3D printers are a bit like AI art to an artist. It’s fast, it can do some things that are nearly impossible to replicate, but it feels like a hack or a crutch at times. Part of the thrill of old-school modeling (for which I’m neither old enough nor patient enough) is taking very basic, simple shapes and making something realistic out of seemingly nothing. Adam is absolutely from that school. And - like AI art - to go from almost good to presentation quality is nearly as much work - or more - that just building from scratch. As a long time model rocket enthusiast, my printer is an amazing utility. But for some of the really intricate models, I have a lot less pride in the final product because I know I just pressed a button and it popped out.
$1M a shot seems like a lot until you look at what goes into each one, how much development costs, and the environment it is designed for. You don’t need corruption to make these expensive. Also, the are based on 30 year old technology. Rather than being cheaper than new, they tend to be more expensive due to requiring miniature mechanisms which were cutting edge in 199x. And there are no other uses for them in their hardened configuration so you don’t get economy of scale of something like a commercial ship or board. Plus there’s a lot of paperwork and you can’t sell a single piece unless the government approves it. This is so far from a consumer item there isn’t even a way to compare costs.
FWIW, corruption would cost roughly the same price but you’d receive a missile with shoddy components and forged paperwork. Just look at Russia’s army to see the difference in munition reliability.