What is the career guide?
The intention behind this guide is to educate aerospace engineers (and anyone else who’s interested) about the deep links between the aerospace industry and the military-industrial complex (MIC).
How should I use this guide?
This guide provides — using a custom scoring system described at the bottom of this page — insight into how closely a number of prominent aerospace companies work with the military-industrial complex (MIC). If you are looking for an internship or job in aerospace, whether or not you’re an aerospace student, you have the right to know what you will be contributing your time and talent to. Companies in this guide are scored from 0 to 9, with lower numbers indicating closer ties between the company in question and the MIC. Explanations of the score are provided as well as background information on each company. Know where you draw the line and use the information in this guide to help you make an informed decision on which companies you apply to and which ones you steer clear of.
How can I help?
If you’d like to contribute any information or research that would help expand or improve the information on this guide, we encourage you to fill out this contributor form. If you’d like to see us research a specific company not listed on this spreadsheet or do more research into an existing one, you can also use the same form to submit a request.
Scoring Metric Description
From Axis I, pick the “worst offense” from the company (i.e. lowest number ranking). Use the company’s involvement in this sphere to determine ranking for Axis II. Axis III is the fraction of the company’s revenue that comes from military sources. Add up the scores from all three axes to get the final score, which is a number between 0 and 9.
Axis I (content)
0: key offensive weapons manufacturer (nuclear triad, aircraft carriers, fighter jets, submarines/bombers w/nukes)
1: offensive weapons manufacturer (tanks, artillery/shells, drones, light arms)
2: “defensive” weapons and support systems (surveillance, missile defense, defensive missile tracking, etc.)
3: none of the above
Axis II (proximity)
0: direct design & production
1: supporting equipment (launch services, software, communication, propulsion, etc.)
2: non-military contracts w/major military contractor
3: none of the above
Axis III (percentage of revenue from defense)
0: 75 – 100%
1: 50 – 74.9%
2: 25 – 49.9%
3: 0 – 24.9%
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