The military is ahead of civilian tech in some areas but not all areas. For instance, they are working with Microsoft to create AR heads up displays for soldiers. If they were ten years ahead they wouldn't need to contract with a private entity.

Additionally, no amount of money by the government can make up for the fact that there's are far more civilians working on certain fields, like AI. The civilians will likely come out with the tech sooner because there are more of them.

The basics of the atom bomb was discovered by civilians. It was only after they went to the government and described what was possible that the military began engineering the bomb.