i would double this. i worked on various software for a smaller defense contractor and it mostly sucked and a lot of it never saw the light of day or one off r&d demos.
years later i ended up on the hardware side writing firmware for various hardware widgets (many truly defensive and life saving), and minor pcb and circuit design for smaller projects. it was very satisfying, tangible work
Past week there was news of: low power risc-v gpus, fpga-integrated sdr, aws quantum internet. It feels like the alien tech is slipping out the back door of the lab ;)
Google AI beats humans at designing computer chips
Working on software in defense sucked a fat one. The guys working hardware enjoyed it a lot more.