Career Guide: Everything You Need to Know About Defence Engineering

Defence engineering is an exciting career. It involves the production and development of technology for national security and world peace. This post will discuss everything you need to know about if you, or anyone you know, is interested in becoming a defence engineer.

Background on the Defence Industry

A defence engineer plays a central role in the defence and aerospace industry. The defence and aerospace industry is a thriving industry as it offers products and services that governments all over the world need. Despite the pandemic, the industry earned $697 billion last year. 

Governments have no power to produce defence technologies so they rely on companies like Thales, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, and Selex Gallileo to provide for their needs. The industry brings in billions of dollars as it deals with massive government contracts day in and day out.

Working as an engineer in the field will have you working on building modern fighter jets, tanks, and naval destroyers. The defence industry is well-funded so engineers in the field always use the most advanced, progressive, and complex technologies. With billions as funds, defence engineers have limitless resources at their disposal.

How to become a defence engineer?

All kinds of engineers can become defence engineers. The skills of engineers with expertise in the following fields are especially needed in the defence industry:

• Avionic
• Aeronautical
• Structural
• Civil
• Chemical
• Mechanical
• Electronic
• Electrical
• Marine

Different experts are necessary as different projects are built like jets, missiles, submarines, and satellites. With any kind of engineering speciality, you can very much be one of your prospective company’s defence equipment engineers who deal with the optimization of different tools, instruments, and devices. Such a job is not field-specific.

To become a defence engineer, you simply need to have an engineering degree from a legitimate university. Any engineering degree will do. But if you want to have a significant advantage, you should opt to specialize.

You can also become a defence engineer without a university degree. You can opt for a non-uni route where you can study related HND or enter an apprenticeship program. This route though will significantly take more years and you’d still be required to study for next-level qualifications.

Defence Engineer Tasks

The kind of task that you would be doing as a defence engineer will depend on the project you’re assigned to. Should you be assigned on a submarine project, you’d be working in the dockyard. You’d also always be out at sea. You could also simply be based in your company’s testing facility.

If you’d be working on an aircraft, you’d either be working in a factory or at an airbase. Regardless of your project, you will always strictly follow uniform defence engineering principles across all endpoints.

The Process for becoming Defence Engineer

All projects will entail the following steps:

1. Problem Analysis – everything begins when your client consults you regarding their concern. It will then be your task to study the problem. You will be tasked to come up with solutions and technologies for it. If there is none, you will have to come up with a new one.
2. Research – after you’ve fully understood your client’s problem, you will then have to research intently. You’d enlist technologies, tools, materials, and mechanisms that can be used for your client’s particular needs and problems. You will have to choose the best possible solution.
3. Tests – upon enlisting the best possible solutions that you’ve come up with in your research, you may then proceed with testing it. All solutions need to be tested first before you can proceed to actual designing. You need to first ensure that all your fundamental principles, technologies, and calculations are foolproof.
4. Designing – once done with testing and fully secure with the technologies and mechanisms that you’ve chosen, you may then start designing. In designing, you fully integrate everything that your client needs. Your design should fully provide reliable solutions to your client’s issues and concerns.
5. Building – after your design has been approved. You may then proceed with building it. Building it will require the application of all the concepts, mechanisms, and technologies that you have researched. As you work in the defence industry, you will have access to unlimited resources during this phase.
6. Prototype test – after building comes the prototype testing. This is when your result is presented to your client and a proper evaluation is made.
7. Issue spotting – this is done during prototype testing. When spotting issues, you, your boss, and your client will look for problems and concerns. All aspects of your project will be scrutinized and evaluated. It will be intensely checked to ensure that it is fit enough for massive production.
8. Client feedback – your client will provide you with everything that needs to be retained, changed, and improved. You will provide a solution for all such concerns. No massive production can be done unless all issues are tended to. Massive production can only take place after all client concerns have been dealt with. This means that you will have to do more than one prototype testing. Prototype testing will go on and on until you and your client have arrived with the best design that solves all of your client’s issues and concerns.
9. Production – massive production follows after a final prototype has been approved. Your job during this part is to ensure the strict monitoring of production.

If you think that you have what it takes to become a defence engineer, then you should go ahead and look for the best universities that offer engineering courses. Hurry up because your dream job is waiting for you!