How is that in anyway a "tightrope"? You're on a government contract so you fulfill the spec and don't use components they don't trust. This isn't an arbitrary jobs program to boost the economy, you're there to produce a product for a customer.
Most government software contracts I'm familiar with are closer to "The government too may use this general purpose product" than "we're building something from scratch just for the DoD". I know the second kind do exist, and I'd believe you if you told me I'm just completely wrong about the relative frequency.
