[starwind]

Worked in defense so I have thoughts.

Warning: it's a slow moving business. Lots of subcontractors do cool stuff with modern tech stacks but the bigger companies--think BAE--are dinosaurs.

Defense touches a lot of different aspects of life. GPS came out of the US Air Force and is being maintained by Space Force (I think, might still be Air Force). DARPA funding has been critical for the development of modern robotic limbs. The Missile Defense Agency exists to protect North American airspace from bad things that explode that could come flying over the arctic. Satellite operations—communications, orbit analysis, making sure they don't get hit by debris—is a big area and only getting bigger.

So there's a lot of aspects of the defense industry that are a lot more about defending people than killing people.

There's also lots of opportunity to do work where you would work on weapons or military intelligence. Most weapons development today is about making weapons smaller and more precise to limit the number of innocent people harmed. There's lot of work in the intelligence field trying to quickly and accurate identify targets via satellite images or signals intelligence or videos posted on Telegram and Twitter to more accurately assess threats and capabilities and potential targets.

Joining the defense industry doesn't mean that you have to work on any project they give you. I'm very clear that I won't do anything for the Saudi's because of what they've done in Yemen and vocally opposed projects my past companies have done that I found disagreeable. My security clearance goes with me if I resign so defense companies want me happy cause I ain't easily replaceable. If you see something unethical, there are people who'll listen if you speak up

[playeren]

Thank you, these points gave valuable insight.