People really give these agencies too much misplaced respect.
The defense and intelligence communities hire from Tier 3 schools in the DC, Maryland and Virginia area.
People that - you imagine - would get laughed at for not being from Stanford and Ivy League at every VC pitch meeting. People you would think weren't the "best of the best" hired by all the tech companies that brag about doing so.
Of course, their engineers are just are educated and ambitious, I'm just pointing out how warped people's perception has become.