What are your opinions about working in weapons design? I'm a 3rd year EE student, and I had a conversation with friend at lunch today about the ethics of working for companies such as Lockheed or Raytheon, specifically designing more lethal weapons. He thinks that engineers have a duty to adhere to a "do no harm" code of ethics, and anything whose purpose is to take the life or injure another human being is unacceptable. His example is: If all engineers stopped making weapons, there would be no war, as there will be no weapons with which to fight. I personally think that as weapons designs get more advanced, they are enchanced to increase lethality towards real military targets, and reduce deaths towards non-combattants. The example that comes to my mind is the boming of European cities during WW2, where entire city blocks were vaporized in the hopes of hitting an important building, killing thousands of civilians. With our modern technology, a single GPS guided bomb is enough to accomplish the same task, while doing little to no collateral damage. Wars are unavoidable, and as an engineer, I can do my part to reduce unnecessary suffering towards civilians. I do recognize that I could have quite a bias towards the "pro-weapons" side, as I work as an officer in the reserve force. I'm absolutely open to ideas that challenge my worldview. What are your opinions on this matter?