You should qualify which engineers you are refering to. From the article it's clear that the majority of the coding is "by a fast-moving cadre of Air Force engineers". They are Forces personnel, not civilians. Yes, Pivotal are involved, equally it seems if they are practicing XP, perhaps now only as Agile Coaches.
I also believe the applications this team are creating are substantively different in intent to those the Google employees were complaining about.
Hey, I work for Pivotal and I'm on an Kessel Run Air Force engagement. We teach things by doing them. That's why we're effective. So we are involved heavily in the making of software, we've always been. Our main schtick is that we try to make sure that we aren't necessary to the software development process when we roll off.
There are actually a couple of things that are the reason why a lot of people don't think it's too much of a problem (some people do and I work out of an office that does a lot of government work so we hear more of this than others do). The main reason is that there isn't pressure for a pivot to work on a project. If the project makes you feel uncomfortable request to be on something else. Leadership has been very thoughtful in addressing how people feel about working on military and government projects (especially with the new administration).
The other reason is that the applications are pretty different in intent, from what I understand, to what was complained by Google employees. It honestly feels like very standard enterprise issues. We're helping them cut through a lot of the same issues anyone would find at large enterprises.
I also believe the applications this team are creating are substantively different in intent to those the Google employees were complaining about.