Developmental Engineering Opportunities

[AeroEngineer]

Hi, I have an LOA to the USNA and I really want to do aerospace engineering and then enter developmental engineering. At the USAFA there’s a lot of very clear positions for that but I can’t find any at USNA. Are there any opportunities or should I reconsider my career goals?

 

[Capt MJ]

Research the Engineering Duty Officer (EDO) and Aerospace Engineering Duty Officer (AEDO) warfare communities at Navy sites. They are restricted line (RL) specialties, meaning those officers only work in roles within their community. They don’t command at sea, but run shipyards and serve as major project and program managers in key mission areas. They are respected professionals who have great post-service job opportunities due to their engineering expertise and leadership experience.

USNA is designed to produce Unrestricted Line (URL) Officers to serve in their warfare specialties, serve in disassociated professional areas, command at sea and ashore.

I am not up to date on the current path out of USNA to EDO or AEDO, whether grads can go direct, or they do SWO-EDO, going Surface Warfare, getting qualified, then laterally transferring communities.

This mentions SWO-EDO:

https://www.usna.edu/AdminSupport/Inst/1000-1999/USNAINST%201301.5J%20Midshipmen%20Service%20Assignment.pdf

This AEDO slide deck shows a career path from URL to RL via lateral accession.


Fleet experience as a URL warfare Officer is clearly considered a critical foundation to further specialization in the RL engineering communities.

 

[Dr. Strange Love]

.
What is your question?

Development can be used in a production context, e.g., Hardware and Software development practices and methodologies. It can also mean Research and Development, cutting/bleeding edge.

You will get Theory and Practice in your undergraduate studies at the SAs. You will have the opportunity to do exploratory research at any of them depending on how quickly you advance in your studies.

The experience you gain in “The Field” after you commission in any service is “Immeasurable”. Real world experience is crucial to scientific advances.

You can’t go wrong picking the Aerospace program from any of the SAs that offer it.
.