Hit: can get a field rep who by contract has to be available, in the motor pool, for 1-2 weeks stretches when called. That field rep may have just designed the very weapon system you’re trying to maintain and they improves your readiness in 2 weeks more than 2 years worth of soldier maintenance would, and all for free to the unit.
Miss: you find out about that field rep and their cellphone through word of mouth, and the on post field reps are garbage.
And minor addition as to why contractors are valuable -- you only pay them when they're there, and can terminate them when they're not needed.
Granted, this can be mismanaged (omnipresent contractors on infinitely extended contracts), but the general principle is that it's sometimes cheaper to pay $600/hr and $60/part, than have to pay for (1) recruiting, (2) training, (3) sustainment, (4) pension, & (5) inventory warehousing and management.
Speaking as a current government contractor, this is not how government contracts work.
On the individual level, someone would have to work very hard, or be seriously disliked, to be terminated. In particular, when an old prime contractor loses a contract, the new prime contractor attempts to hire all of the individual workers from the old contractor, and generally succeeds. (It kind of makes sense; the work will likely remain the same, and the workers are the only ones who know what that is.)
Second, the government is often paying the $600/hr not because it's cheaper or more flexible, but instead to insure that there is a national market for, say, aerospace engineers. (Without defense contracts, the number of aerospace engineering positions in the country would likely be in the three digits, not the five digits.) The government is paying for recruiting, training, sustainment, pensions, and inventory management anyway.
Well, talking about a range here. Presumably the government isn't privatizing janitorial services to maintain a national market for janitorial engineers. ;)
And I guess that's the rub. There's places where it does make sense and places where it doesn't. Unfortunately, where it gets used and where it doesn't is ultimately a political process.
Thereby incentivise your contractors to let things fail. Contractors only get paid if things fail, if they are on salary and on staff they are incentivised for things not to fail.
Hit: can get a field rep who by contract has to be available, in the motor pool, for 1-2 weeks stretches when called. That field rep may have just designed the very weapon system you’re trying to maintain and they improves your readiness in 2 weeks more than 2 years worth of soldier maintenance would, and all for free to the unit.
Miss: you find out about that field rep and their cellphone through word of mouth, and the on post field reps are garbage.