What needs to be learned?

Question

IT education

Goodnight! The son is finishing school. He wants to follow in his father's footsteps, he also deals with websites in the IT field, and his son wants to become a military programmer. Who and in what languages ​​develops software for missiles and the industry as a whole? what technologies and skills are needed? what universities to prepare for?

Answer 1

military programmer

I don't know much about military specialties, but it seems to me that such a specialty as "military programmer" does not exist.
You may be surprised, but missile software, like missiles themselves, is not developed by the military at all, but simply by ordinary engineers, many of whom (although who I'm kidding - the vast majority) did not even serve in the army. Software for on-board computers is mainly developed in C, various related software for PCs - in different languages, whoever is in it, there are no standards here. Delphi, C#, whatever.
Therefore, you can enter any technical university that has the appropriate specialty.
But I want to warn you right away that work in such institutions is quite specific and not everyone likes it. Although it has its advantages, a young specialist can learn a lot and participate in serious projects, and quickly grow to a leading engineer. Cons - the specifics associated with secrecy, bureaucracy (not everyone concerns, of course), and small salaries. But for the beginning of a career, it can be a good option.
Regarding secrecy: now ordinary engineers mostly have the third form of secrecy, which does not impose restrictions on traveling abroad.

Answer 2

Very small salaries. I think that my son needs to go to any good technical university, and after that let him decide whether he still wants to go to rockets or not.

Answer 3

Who and in what languages ​​develops software for missiles and the industry as a whole?

- what programming language - it does not matter, any PL can be mastered quickly, but knowledge of PL does not make a programmer at all.
To develop software for missiles, knowledge of the subject area will be a thousand times more important than any PL. You need to know physics and mathematics with 10 points out of 5. Because the price of a mistake in this area is very high. A web programmer can make a hundred mistakes and put his code into production, and nothing bad will happen. Well, the page will not open for customers, well, the business will receive less profit. In the rocket and space field, just one mistake can cost the lives of N-th number of people. And it’s not a fact that the error will be detected during testing, because. conditions may vary slightly. Therefore, even one small mistake should not be made from the very beginning of development. Very big pressure, very big responsibility.
But fantastically cool, even if the salary is really small (I don’t know about the salary).
Once again: subject area! 20% programming study and 80% domain study. And a broad outlook - for the right way of thinking.

Answer 4

One more example. UrFU (Yekaterinburg). There is a faculty of a military school (I don't remember the exact names anymore, 10 years have passed)
. So, there the guys (and girls, almost half) studied in a number of specialties. One specialty with us had many mathematical disciplines.
We went in military uniform, many military disciplines.
But the point is not in this, but in the fact that a third of the group (20+ people) of them were recruited by Interpol after graduation. Officially, the locals happily wrote the news.
All together in France dumped on extra. education. 2 people were returning on vacation, we crossed paths - he says that they also program, photo analysis programs, tracking social programs.
Like for outsourcing something they give the least critical, and so much secrecy, only themselves.