DoD or other major buyer wants a "computer" that can't boot insecurely, but the OS they are using isn't MS.
A defense contractor sells the DoD what amounts to a commodity Intel or AMD x64 computer that's locked down to only boot a specific, DoD-approved software stack - a stack that is NOT based on MS-Windows.
The DoD buys the computers but the project is eventually scrapped before full deployment.
To make these computers more attractive at auction, the DoD gets the defense contractor or the motherboard manufacturer to sign a version of Matthew's bootloader or something similar.
This bootloader can now be used to boot ... wait for it ... Windows. Or any other OS.
The DoD now gets "used computer" prices at auction instead of "scrap metal" prices.
How about doing this in reverse?
A defense contractor sells the DoD what amounts to a commodity Intel or AMD x64 computer that's locked down to only boot a specific, DoD-approved software stack - a stack that is NOT based on MS-Windows.
The DoD buys the computers but the project is eventually scrapped before full deployment.
To make these computers more attractive at auction, the DoD gets the defense contractor or the motherboard manufacturer to sign a version of Matthew's bootloader or something similar.
This bootloader can now be used to boot ... wait for it ... Windows. Or any other OS.
The DoD now gets "used computer" prices at auction instead of "scrap metal" prices.