The parts of the government that think everything should be written in a memory-safe language (like Rust) are the same parts that already write everything in Java. Most of the high-end systems work is in C++, and that is the type of software where lifetimes and ownership are frequently unknowable at compile-time, obviating Rust's main selling point.

It's not a hard dichotomy. Almost all of the rules Rust imposes are also present in C++, enforcement is simply left up to the fallible human programmer. Frankly though, is it that big a deal whether we call it unique_ptr/shared_ptr or Box/Arc if a lifetime is truly unknowable?

Rust shines in the other 95% of code. I spend some time every morning cleaning up the sorts of issues Rust prevents that my coworkers have managed to commit despite tooling safeguards. I try for 3 a day, the list is growing, and I don't have to dig deep to find them. My coworkers aren't stupid people, they're intelligent people making simple mistakes because they aren't computers. It won't matter how often I tell them "you made X mistake on Y line, which violates Z rule" because the issue is not their knowledge, it's the inherent inability of humans to follow onerous technical rules without mistakes.