When reporters asked (Alan) Shepard what he thought about as he sat atop the Redstone rocket, waiting for liftoff, he had replied, 'The fact that every part of this ship was built by the lowest bidder.'

There was a war movie and in one scene they were handing out gear to the troops and one guy was like “Is there anything good?” or something along those lines and someone responded “It’s from the Army, NOPE!” And to this day whenever I think about it I chuckle a bit.

MIL specs for steels are very particular in some regards. There's a reason armor plate is used far beyond the original application.