That is a good question. I have thought of this subject also. According to the JDA, NOC can terminate at anytime for various reasons. One of those is the financial security of CRQE being in question. So, I would think that if NOC saw that this effort was futile, they would have already terminated the JDA.
As you may have already pointed out, they could very well be behind the recent share purchases, in order to gain the company/patents cheaply. Or another higher-profile company (Akuo) could be doing the same.
There is no doubt about the value of the technology, but the financial viability of this company is in peril right now. If CRQE were to fail, NOC/AKUO could access the patents through CE II LLC, privately owned by the CRQE leaders. I would hope their past integrity would preclude them from making this choice, though.
I am not a huge fan of the many alternate companies that the leaders of CRQE have set-up and intertwined with CRQE. That seems "cheesy" to me as an investor. But as a prior and current private business owner, I would probably do the same to protect my assets. It just leaves the public investors out on a cliff, though, if things take a downward turn.
