Geopolitical considerations aside, how is tech development on big projects like AEGIS (or, the other counterexample is how the air forces develop things like th

Geopolitical considerations aside, how is tech development on big projects like AEGIS (or, the other counterexample is how the air forces develop things like the JSF systems electronics, airborne command and control systems/AWACS, etc). It would seem just isolating on the problems needing to be solved that this would be as intriguing as, say, Space X developing autonomously landing first stage rocket boosters and drone ships...but I'd imagine the development process and culture to be dramatically different.