by GuestFS » Sat Dec 13, 2014 11:45 am
Larry,
I suspect seeing hardware like this is why many of us were motivated to sign onto SMART. It's a nice press release, but the real question is - who exactly is doing the research, design and development work? A quick Wikipedia search...
In 2010, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions was awarded an 11-million-dollar contract to develop LaWS in support of the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) for the U.S. Navy’s Directed Energy and Electric Weapon Systems (DE&EWS) program.[5]
Even in the press release:
Three industry teams - led by Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, and Raytheon - have been selected to develop SSL-TM designs. ONR will in 2015 decide which of these are suitable for demonstration at sea.
My experience is similar to Nunya's - while I did not work at Dahlgren, the most "technical" work I saw was managing milestones with defense contractors. "Research" was instructing the contractor, "we have inputs, A, B, C and want outputs 1, 2, and 3 with these constraints."
To the original poster:
I would start talking with your SF immediately to determine exactly what your job responsibilities are. The SF I worked for advertised technical projects and provided a job description that sounded relevant, interesting, and fun -- but as many others on this forum, I was "duped." All technical work was contracted out.I'd ask what kind of engineering tools they use (solid modeling, numerical simulation, development environments, circuit simulation and PCA layout, dynamic simulation, FEA, CFD, signal acquisition hardware and dsp, etc -- depending on your degree). Be sure to ask which tools specifically - don't settle for a generic, "oh yeah, we use that." Ask how many other engineers use these tools, and how often you will be using them (some places may have some software tools, but have a very limited number of licenses of such tools -- only to view contractor's files on occasion). Make sure you ask your supervisor -- not the HR rep. If you are not "placed" within your SF into a specific group with a specific supervisor, I would be very skeptical, and perhaps run.
Larry,
I suspect seeing hardware like this is why many of us were motivated to sign onto SMART. It's a nice press release, but the real question is - who exactly is doing the research, design and development work? A quick Wikipedia search...
[quote]
In 2010, [b]Kratos Defense & Security Solutions was awarded an 11-million-dollar contract to develop LaWS[/b] in support of the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) for the U.S. Navy’s Directed Energy and Electric Weapon Systems (DE&EWS) program.[5]
[/quote]
Even in the press release:
[quote]
Three industry teams - led by Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, and Raytheon - have been selected to develop SSL-TM designs. ONR will in 2015 decide which of these are suitable for demonstration at sea.
[/quote]
My experience is similar to Nunya's - while I did not work at Dahlgren, the most "technical" work I saw was managing milestones with defense contractors. "Research" was instructing the contractor, "we have inputs, A, B, C and want outputs 1, 2, and 3 with these constraints."
To the original poster:
I would start talking with your SF immediately to determine exactly what your job responsibilities are. The SF I worked for advertised technical projects and provided a job description that sounded relevant, interesting, and fun -- but as many others on this forum, I was "duped." All technical work was contracted out.I'd ask what kind of engineering tools they use (solid modeling, numerical simulation, development environments, circuit simulation and PCA layout, dynamic simulation, FEA, CFD, signal acquisition hardware and dsp, etc -- depending on your degree). Be sure to ask which tools specifically - don't settle for a generic, "oh yeah, we use that." Ask how many other engineers use these tools, and how often you will be using them (some places may have some software tools, but have a very limited number of licenses of such tools -- only to view contractor's files on occasion). Make sure you ask your supervisor -- not the HR rep. If you are not "placed" within your SF into a specific group with a specific supervisor, I would be very skeptical, and perhaps run.