Originally posted by Soma
Would Confed sell salvaging rights to private companies provided they would get anything with military value?
Absolutely. It would be a win-win for all sides involved. Confed could send its personnel and equipment to more important locations, and the local salvage company would get anything that Confed wasn't interested in (i.e. most of the scrap). The company would actually pay Confed for the right to do something that would have otherwise cost Confed money, based on the expectation that they'd make a profit off of all of the junk they picked up. Confed wouldn't have to worry any longer about people picking through the debris and finding military grade weapons. Confed also wouldn't have to worry so much about accidental collisions between ships and pieces of debris. The independent salvage company would probably have to endure periodic inspections to ensure that weapons weren't being smuggled out of the debris, but that would probably be about it.