> In that case, it would be a no-brainer for the Big Defense Contractor to buy him out...which leads me to believe that the BDC has a better version already and doesn't need this guy's model. So he's in a tough situation where he's designed something that's better* than anyone else's in the world, except for his direct U.S. competition.

This is very likely a big part of this guy's problem. Either the tech isn't as good as advertised or he's unwilling to sell. Maybe he doesn't think he'll get fair value, I don't know. Now, one could argue that it's unfair that we have a system that forces the little guy to sell out to the big guy, but that's a different argument.