I recently was hired by a major DoD contracted company to do some software work. The project (which is public) was described to me as a comms system that is built to detect hypersonic missiles to help intercept them. Upon hearing that, I thought working on an anti-missile system aligns with my values pretty well, as I could be saving potentially thousands of lives by helping develop this system.

Last week I found out though that this system also facilitates military communications and targeting, which I feel like cuts a whole lot more into the offensive side of war than I wanted to. In theory it will be vast improvement in military communication and targeting speed and capability, and it would very likely save many, many more lives than it would take. However, there’s definitely a weird feeling in trying to accept that, and I never expected to have to confront something like this for a job.

Is working on this project unethical? I consider myself left-of-center and a non-violent person, but I do believe the military is necessary and, when used correctly, can be a force for good. I am fresh out of college with basically no money to my name, so leaving wouldn’t be ideal financially, but might be beneficial morally.

I’ve been talking to a lot of friends this week about whether I should quit or not and I told them I felt this. I’ve seen various arguments that include the following:

• ⁠Defense employees shouldn’t blame themselves for the military using the tools we provide them incorrectly

• ⁠The U.S. military does take innocent lives, but it saves many more lives than it takes

• ⁠As a dev, you’re not the one firing the missiles

• ⁠The project I’m working on would save more lives than it takes

Etc. I don’t necessarily know how I feel about any of these takes, these are just the arguments I’ve seen