Would you design for the military?

It’s an interesting and very subjective decision, and can be influenced in either way depending on the specific project I suppose. Last night when I wrote the post I was thinking that I wouldn’t do anything military, but then on my drive to work earlier today got thinking about some of the really cool/innovative stuff that could be worked on and right away started to flip-flop on my initial opinion.

A friend of a friend is a chemical engineer at the DSTO (Defence Science & Technology), and spends all day testing new formulas for ‘maximum kill ratio’ and the like. He’s only a researcher, and didn’t have any problems at all with chatting about it (no specifics of course) but I guess they develop a disconnect from the engineering aspect to the real-world purpose of their work.

I think I would have a much harder time working on nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. I don’t have a problem with soldiers killing soldiers, but vaste civilian killing is way beyond my moral envelope. Thankfully such WMD are not industrial design intensive projects.

I got to work on a compact 45 cal sub-machine gun a few years ago. We did some conceptual work for different models and redesigned the folding butt stock.
This specific weapon improved muzzle climb and re-directed the recoil forces so the embodiment was different than your typical AK47, M16, etc. From the innovation aspect it was awesome to work on it. Solving ergonomic and usability challenges was also challenging.
It’s hard to draw the line as to what you will and will not design. We live in a society where our police and military use weapons. Our TV shows, cartoons, video games and movies glorify weapons and killing. In my opinion the amount of violence our society watches as entertainment probably causes more harm than the actual gun.

I think deciding what you will support as a consumer and a voter are equally important.

[ Deleted ]

I have done more than a handful projects for defense and aerospace companies.
It’s a market with heavy regulatory restrictions and one which tends to be very conservative , perhaps a bit like the medical- device market.
However- Many times I found it gave me a great degree of freedom, as it essentially focus on turning specific technologies assigned to deal with operational objectives and turn them to functional, user friendly products.

Besides HMI guidelines pre-defined by Mil. Standard, many projects didn’t had any vision to how the products would be used and focus mainly on WHAT IT DOES.
By the clandestine nature of this filed, you can’t get any information from focus groups or market research/bench marking, so a lot of the design research is done through observations, interviews and mock-up tests.

Another interesting challenge is what I call the “Hidden client” agenda: Most products have , in fact , two users- The obvious one is the soldier/pilot/Marine which will actually use the product- He is usually a relatively young person -Grown up in the high tech environment we all know , while the other client (And the one who has the money and makes the final decisions…) is a much older, senior general- who grow up in a different era and accustom to a different attitude. As a designer I need to balance this issue and this, I find , Is very different from consumer products , which uses marketing and feedback from beta user testing.

I’ve been doing interaction design work for the military my entire career. The very first project I worked on in my very first full-time job was with Lockheed Martin. I designed an application for USAF aircraft inspectors. Since then, I’ve designed software used by Explosive Ordnance Disposal units, NCIS, the Coast Guard, and the Navy.

All of the software I’ve designed has been for maintenance, mission planning, data logging, and analysis. I haven’t worked on the design of any weapon systems, but certainly the software I’ve designed is used to maintain vehicles that bear weapons.

I was once told by a college student at a job fair, after mentioning that our company worked on military contracts, that I should leave. While I realize that many may have trouble making an ethical decision about the type of work I have done, my conscience is clear. While I can’t cite specific instances, it is likely that my work has contributed to the safety of our soldiers—that lives have been saved. I’m proud of that.

While doing research and training with members of our armed forces, I have developed much respect and empathy for the sacrifices, big and small, that they make for our security on a daily basis. I’ve been onboard aircraft carriers and submarines. I’ve observed training scenarios on a bomb range. I’ve listened to young men tell stories that make me profoundly grateful that I have not had to go through the experiences they have, and honored to be able to provide a service that will make their job safer, more efficient, more effective, or at least a little less onerous.

The work I’ve done for our military has been challenging and extremely rewarding.

Ethics in design is an interesting one, and there’s so many variables that can come into play.

This is a very hard question and I agree a very interesting one.

Not sure if anyone have the right answer, certainly I don’t… However I am pretty sure one have to think about it!

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No. I would not.

fullstop.

Our board of directors is in consent not to deliver our goods and services into projects which are about or get close to offensive weapons.
Defense is a different matter, though.
And sometimes it is hard to decide what is what.

Within 10 years I can only remember one occasion that we pulled out of discussions because of our ethics code.
That was neccessary but did not have an effect in the market place.
Did protect our karma, though.

mo-i

For me it’s definitely a question of offensive vs defensive purposes and often its hard to make the distinction between the two. There is no question that defense contractors have access to the coolest tools, materials, process and budgets to realize real innovation. I have often daydreamed of working on projects that have a much larger positive impact on the world than what i currently do and defense projects can definitely fit that bill.

I’d also like to point out that some of my, and i suspect “our” biggest idols worked with the military.
There’s an argument to made that the positive impact they had on design and the world in general came directly from their relationship with the military.

I believe in that a coin always have two sides (or three, or infinite…). For example that everything good can be used for evil.
If you make the best [random killing device] then you are also very knowledgeable about the weaknesses and the best ways to counter it.
Similar to doctors who save lives could be the best at taking lives.

Living in Sweden I know that most of our weapons will probably never kill anyone. Even the countries we sell weapons to will hopefully never use them and that ethical responsibility I thrust the government with. Sweden would not be the highly developed country it is today if it were not for the domestically developed weapons in which we have gained knowledge to apply in other fields and new businesses.

I have worked on some law enforcement/security products for Safariland, and headgear for US special forces (sorry don’t know exactly more about the customer). For design firms these can be very lucrative projects to land, as they measure time in “man-years” so a small firm can have a “bread and butter” client for a long time, easing the worries of overhead and payroll.

Crye Precision in Brooklyn NY does nice work; the founder Caleb Crye is a very good designer/product developer and a Cooper Union grad. I’ve worked in the periphery of some of his headgear projects. After Cooper: Crye Precision | The Cooper Union

On the flip side the bureaucracy is unbelievable.

I think the over-riding sentiment among people who design for the military sounds something like the values shared by the warfighters themselves, that its more about the guy (or girl) next to them in the fight, than it is about the State Dept or politicized overseas conflicts. When designing with a strict rubric of “save this person’s life when being fired upon” the motivation tends to become very clear.

The Eames leg splint was designed expressly for the military.

Don’t forget America’s favorite Naval Chair.

Eames splint and the aluminum chair don’t really fit the discussion – both were done during WWII. Everyone was doing everything they could for the war effort – there was no moral dilemma.

I have worked on some projects with the end customer being a military organization. None of the projects were strictly “offensive” devices, so I could somewhat justify that they could be used for protection of our armed forces as others have said.

Unfortunately, I don’t really get to choose what types of projects I work on. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone here. Working for a small firm, you pretty much have to take whatever work you can, because staying flexible is the only way to stay afloat.

The type of project that I would find really uncomfortable to work on would be if I had to design a “military-grade” product for a consumer products manufacturer in the firearm industry. Some of these companies are making serious weapons and accessories that really have no viable use outside of combat situations, but they are only available to regular consumers. And they don’t even attempt to hide it by marketing them toward hunting, target shooting, or personal defense. That’s the stuff that scares me the most.

There was greater support for the Allied war effort among the citizens, but nationwide shortages of raw materials along with concerted propaganda contributed to that moral certainty. The Eames’ arrived in Los Angeles without any contacts or business prospects. The splint was an offshoot of some plywood explorations built in their apartment. One could imagine them as a modern-day firm starving for work, and taking the first thing available. During WW2 there wasn’t much else in terms of industry to design for.

Imagine seeing a Christmas card like this nowadays!

Also, there were objectors to WWII.

Frank Lloyd Wright being one of them actually. I believe several of his Taliesin students actually went to jail for failing to submit to the draft.

I’d love to hear his reasoning behind that, as he is one of my all time inspirational “greats” and keeps influencing me tremendously.
Guess you can either design bombers or churchs as well as a synagoge, but not all three of them.

Any Designer/ Architect known who did both? Clerical and military work?

mo-i

Beth Sholom:

First off, for those attempting to draw a distinction between “offensive” and “defensive” weapons, such a distinction is essentially spurious. IF it helps you sleep better at night, good on ya, but it’s a fantasy. Now, there IS purely defensive EQUIPMENT, such as body armor and the like, but again, as those who attempt to ban possession of body armor by civilians recognize, having better defensive equipment allows one to be more effective on offense.

Second, the military has a huge need for “design”. Human factor consideration is massive in military “stuff”. “Form follows function.” Engineers focus on making it work, and then making it fit into whatever space. Lots of opportunities for designers to bring their skill, including their aesthetic skills, but because of the “engineer culture” infusing the defense, it’s likely a bit rougher of a ride than in other fields.