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A comment on The U.S. Air Force learned to code and saved the Pentagon millions. Parent comment

Re:The U.S. Air Force learned to code and saved the Pentagon... by jrochkind1 on Saturday July 07, 2018 @03:05AM (#17477455)
> This assumption that as soon as somebody learns how to code, they pack up and move to the Bay Area... In reality, the USAF here is competing against the cost of defence contractors.

Exactly. The airmen that can leave, will leave to defense contractors, not silicon valley.

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Re:The U.S. Air Force learned to code and saved the Pentagon... by oliwarner on Saturday July 07, 2018 @04:29PM (#17480397)
The armed forces training people to go into private versions is nothing new. The difference here —that you don't see in military engineering or mercenary work— is the USAF can control both supply of and demand for developers on its internal projects and undercut contractors.

And if they have transferable skills on exit, all the better for them.

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Re:The U.S. Air Force learned to code and saved the Pentagon... by jrochkind1 on Monday July 09, 2018 @10:07AM (#17490235)
Why couldn't they do the same with any other kind of military contracting?
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Re:The U.S. Air Force learned to code and saved the Pentagon... by oliwarner on Sunday July 15, 2018 @02:01PM (#17536255)
The cost to get up and running. You're taking hundreds of millions in capital expenditure for an engineering R&D lab. Double that if you want to actually produce something.

Compared to a pile of consultants, laptops and whiteboards. Software is cheap to make.

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