What is DARPA?

photorandy2023

7 months ago

This is a new series of articles where I explain various terms, catchphrases, and other confusing topics, as well as many secret government projects and agencies. If there are any subjects you’re interested in learning about, please include them in the comment section.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a US government agency that develops new technologies for the military. DARPA is part of the Department of Defense.

What does DARPA do?

Invests in technologies that can create strategic advantages for the military
Works with academic, corporate, and government partners to develop new technologies
Focuses on transformational change, rather than incremental improvements
Engages a diverse group of people to develop new ideas

**What has DARPA developed?

The internet
RISC computing
Global positioning satellites
Stealth technology
Unmanned aerial vehicles (drones)
Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS)

How does DARPA work?

DARPA recruits program managers from academia, industry, and government agencies
Program managers work with research performers to consider all perspectives and implications of new technologies
DARPA seeks to create transient immunity to diseases, rather than long-term solutions

How can you get involved with DARPA?

DARPAConnect is a program that connects small businesses and educational institutions with DARPA
DARPA has roles for technical and non-technical people, military and civilians, and government contractors

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

DARPA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense with a singular and enduring mission: to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security. The Agency explicitly reaches for transformational change instead of incremental advances. To do so, it works within an innovation ecosystem that includes academic, corporate and governmental partners, with a constant focus on the Nation’s military Services, which work with DARPA to create new strategic opportunities and novel tactical options. DARPA comprises approximately 220 government employees in six technical offices, including nearly 100 program managers, who together oversee about 250 research and development programs. DARPA goes to great lengths to identify, recruit and support excellent program managers—extraordinary individuals who are at the top of their fields and are hungry for the opportunity to push the limits of their disciplines. These leaders, who are at the very heart of DARPA’s history of success, come from academia, industry and government agencies for limited stints, generally three to five years. That deadline fuels the signature DARPA urgency to achieve success in less time than might be considered reasonable in a conventional setting. Program managers address challenges broadly, spanning the spectrum from deep science to systems to capabilities, but ultimately they are driven by the desire to make a difference. They define their programs, set milestones, meet with their performers and assiduously track progress. But they are also constantly probing for the next big thing in their fields, communicating with leaders in the scientific and engineering community to identify new challenges and potential solutions. DARPA is always on the lookout for outstanding individuals who can meet our demanding needs in the Agency’s technical and support offices. Interested individuals may submit a resume/CV to employment@darpa.mil. Websitehttp://www.darpa.mil IndustryDefense and Space ManufacturingCompany size201-500 employeesHeadquartersArlington, VATypeGovernment AgencyFounded1958SpecialtiesInnovation

Locations

Primary675 N Randolph StArlington, VA 22203, USGet directions

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), the agency was created on February 7, 1958, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in response to the Soviet launching of Sputnik 1 in 1957. By collaborating with academia, industry, and government partners, DARPA formulates and executes research and development projects to expand the frontiers of technology and science, often beyond immediate U.S. military requirements. The name of the organization first changed from its founding name, ARPA, to DARPA, in March 1972, changing back to ARPA in February 1993, then reverted to DARPA in March 1996.

The Economist has called DARPA “the agency that shaped the modern world,” with technologies like “Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine … weather satellites, GPS, drones, stealth technology, voice interfaces, the personal computer and the internet on the list of innovations for which DARPA can claim at least partial credit.” Its track record of success has inspired governments around the world to launch similar research and development agencies.

DARPA is independent of other military research and development and reports directly to senior Department of Defense management. DARPA comprises approximately 220 government employees in six technical offices, including nearly 100 program managers, who together oversee about 250 research and development programs. The agency’s current director, appointed in March 2021, is Stefanie Tompkins.

Mission

As of 2021, their mission statement is “to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security”.

Everything you need to know about the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was established in 1958, in the wake of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik launch the year before. Worried that the U.S. was losing its technological edge to the Soviets, President Dwight D. Eisenhower created the agency to organize the United States’ missile and space projects and align them with the goals of the federal government.

Later, DARPA expanded and began looking into other fields of research, like telecommunications and artificial intelligence, and the agency continues to build research projects around novel technology.

What does DARPA do?

DARPA creates projects that tackle novel research for the U.S. military.

How powerful is DARPA?

DARPA produces impactful research, despite its comparatively small staff. The agency’s budget is usually over $4 billion.

What is the DARPA five-year rule?

Instead of pursuing ongoing research projects, DARPA funds projects that typically last three to five years.

Despite DARPA’s wide-ranging activities across engineering and science, the agency has carried out a specific mission for over 50 years: “to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security.”

As a federal research and development agency within the Department of Defense, DARPA strives for moonshot technology advances with immediate, real-world consequences. The military agency recruits researchers from across scientific and engineering disciplines to work on projects that typically take three to five years to complete.

“DARPA explicitly reaches for transformational change instead of incremental advances,” the agency’s website states. The technology that DARPA projects have produced and contributed to — which have ranged from the internet to miniaturized GPS — hold profound implications not only for national security but for everyday people worldwide.

“Though the U.S. military was the original customer for DARPA’s applications, the agency’s advances have played a central role in creating a host of multibillion-dollar industries,” former DARPA Director Regina E. Dugan and former Deputy Director Kaigham J. Gabriel wrote in a 2013 Harvard Business Review article.

How did DARPA start?

Originally named ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency), the agency was created in February 1958, following the Soviets’ launch of Sputnik in October 1957. Sputnik’s launch was a wake-up call, and both the public and the government were worried about ceding technological superiority to a rival nation.

The idea was to organize the United States’ various competing space programs and designate which space-related research was the U.S. military’s domain, as opposed to civilian research. By 1960, DARPA had organized and transferred civilian space programs to NASA and military space programs to military branches.

In 1972, the agency’s name changed to DARPA. It briefly reverted to the original name in 1993, before the “D” was added again in 1996.

What is DARPA’s research?

While DARPA’s first priority is national defense, the agency’s research has reverberated through everyday life.

In 1958, ARPA initiated the Television and Infrared Observations Satellites (TIROS) project, the world’s first weather satellite, which was transferred to NASA the next year. 1958 also saw ARPA authorize the development of a liquid oxygen-hydrogen upper-stage rocket called Centaur, a version of which is still used in the launch industry today.

In the mid-1960s, ARPA began working on the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), a network that allowed sharing between computers in different places. ARPANET was the initial network that laid the groundwork for the modern internet.

DARPA contributed to military stealth technology in the mid-1970s by developing Have Blue, the first modern stealth aircraft for combat. The agency followed up with the Tacit Blue aircraft, which was foundational for developing the B-2 stealth bomber.

In 1983, DARPA worked on miniaturizing GPS receivers, which helped lighten the load of soldiers on the ground who lugged around large receivers. The technology also improved the U.S. military’s ability to make precise strikes on far-off targets. Today, smartphones use the technology for vehicle navigation.

In 2021, DARPA worked with multiple U.S. agencies, as well as universities and the private industry, to create solutions to address the COVID-19 pandemic, including making tests for diagnosing patients infected with the virus.

DARPA is also heavily involved with artificial intelligence research. In 2024, Matt Turek, deputy director of DARPA’s Information Innovation Office, said some form of artificial intelligence, machine learning or autonomy is used by about 70% of DARPA programs.

How does DARPA research new technology?

The program managers typically form a team for their project that includes members of academia and the private sector. Rather than pursuing open-ended research projects, DARPA awards contracts for projects that usually last three to five years.

The projects’ “intensity, sharp focus, and finite time frame make them attractive to the highest-caliber talent, and the nature of the challenge inspires unusual levels of collaboration,” Dugan and Gabriel wrote. “In other words, the projects get great people to tackle great problems with other great people.”

Whereas private companies and universities are often somewhat reserved in their research because it tends to be expensive and doesn’t always pay off, DARPA takes an entirely different approach: The agency funds high-risk, high-return projects aimed at making big leaps in a chosen field.

History

DARPA achievements for the past 50 years

Early history (1958–1969)

DARPA’s former headquarters in the Virginia Square neighborhood of Arlington County, Virginia. The agency is currently located in a new building at 675 North Randolph St.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was suggested by the President’s Scientific Advisory Committee to President Dwight D. Eisenhower in a meeting called after the launch of Sputnik. ARPA was formally authorized by President Eisenhower in 1958 for the purpose of forming and executing research and development projects to expand the frontiers of technology and science, and able to reach far beyond immediate military requirements. The two relevant acts are the Supplemental Military Construction Authorization (Air Force) (Public Law 85-325) and Department of Defense Directive 5105.15, in February 1958. It was placed within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and counted approximately 150 people. Its creation was directly attributed to the launching of Sputnik and to U.S. realization that the Soviet Union had developed the capacity to rapidly exploit military technology. Initial funding of ARPA was $520 million. ARPA’s first director, Roy Johnson, left a $160,000 management job at General Electric for an $18,000 job at ARPA. Herbert York from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was hired as his scientific assistant.

Johnson and York were both keen on space projects, but when NASA was established later in 1958 all space projects and most of ARPA’s funding were transferred to it. Johnson resigned and ARPA was repurposed to do “high-risk”, “high-gain”, “far out” basic research, a posture that was enthusiastically embraced by the nation’s scientists and research universities. ARPA’s second director was Brigadier General Austin W. Betts, who resigned in early 1961 and was succeeded by Jack Ruina who served until 1963. Ruina, the first scientist to administer ARPA, managed to raise its budget to $250 million. It was Ruina who hired J. C. R. Licklider as the first administrator of the Information Processing Techniques Office, which played a vital role in creation of ARPANET, the basis for the future Internet.

Additionally, the political and defense communities recognized the need for a high-level Department of Defense organization to formulate and execute R&D projects that would expand the frontiers of technology beyond the immediate and specific requirements of the Military Services and their laboratories. In pursuit of this mission, DARPA has developed and transferred technology programs encompassing a wide range of scientific disciplines that address the full spectrum of national security needs.

From 1958 to 1965, ARPA’s emphasis centered on major national issues, including space, ballistic missile defense, and nuclear test detection. During 1960, all of its civilian space programs were transferred to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the military space programs to the individual services.

This allowed ARPA to concentrate its efforts on the Project Defender (defense against ballistic missiles), Project Vela (nuclear test detection), and Project AGILE (counterinsurgency R&D) programs, and to begin work on computer processing, behavioral sciences, and materials sciences. The DEFENDER and AGILE programs formed the foundation of DARPA sensor, surveillance, and directed energy R&D, particularly in the study of radar, infrared sensing, and x-ray/gamma ray detection.

ARPA at this point (1959) played an early role in Transit (also called NavSat) a predecessor to the Global Positioning System (GPS). “Fast-forward to 1959 when a joint effort between DARPA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory began to fine-tune the early explorers’ discoveries. TRANSIT, sponsored by the Navy and developed under the leadership of Richard Kirschner at Johns Hopkins, was the first satellite positioning system.”

During the late 1960s, with the transfer of these mature programs to the Services, ARPA redefined its role and concentrated on a diverse set of relatively small, essentially exploratory research programs. The agency was renamed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 1972, and during the early 1970s, it emphasized direct energy programs, information processing, and tactical technologies.

Concerning information processing, DARPA made great progress, initially through its support of the development of time-sharing. All modern operating systems rely on concepts invented for the Multics system, developed by a cooperation among Bell Labs, General Electric and MIT, which DARPA supported by funding Project MAC at MIT with an initial two-million-dollar grant.

DARPA supported the evolution of the ARPANET (the first wide-area packet switching network), Packet Radio Network, Packet Satellite Network and ultimately, the Internet and research in the artificial intelligence fields of speech recognition and signal processing, including parts of Shakey the robot. DARPA also supported the early development of both hypertext and hypermedia. DARPA funded one of the first two hypertext systems, Douglas Engelbart‘s NLS computer system, as well as The Mother of All Demos. DARPA later funded the development of the Aspen Movie Map, which is generally seen as the first hypermedia system and an important precursor of virtual reality.

Later history (1970–1980)

[edit]

The Mansfield Amendment of 1973 expressly limited appropriations for defense research (through ARPA/DARPA) only to projects with direct military application.

The resulting “brain drain” is credited with boosting the development of the fledgling personal computer industry. Some young computer scientists left the universities to startups and private research laboratories such as Xerox PARC.

Between 1976 and 1981, DARPA’s major projects were dominated by air, land, sea, and space technology, tactical armor and anti-armor programs, infrared sensing for space-based surveillance, high-energy laser technology for space-based missile defense, antisubmarine warfare, advanced cruise missiles, advanced aircraft, and defense applications of advanced computing.

Many of the successful programs were transitioned to the Services, such as the foundation technologies in automatic target recognition, space-based sensing, propulsion, and materials that were transferred to the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO), later known as the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO), now titled the Missile Defense Agency (MDA).

Recent history (1981–present)

During the 1980s, the attention of the Agency was centered on information processing and aircraft-related programs, including the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) or Hypersonic Research Program. The Strategic Computing Program enabled DARPA to exploit advanced processing and networking technologies and to rebuild and strengthen relationships with universities after the Vietnam War. In addition, DARPA began to pursue new concepts for small, lightweight satellites (LIGHTSAT) and directed new programs regarding defense manufacturing, submarine technology, and armor/anti-armor.

In 1981, two engineers, Robert McGhee and Kenneth Waldron, started to develop the Adaptive Suspension Vehicle (ASV) nicknamed the “Walker” at the Ohio State University, under a research contract from DARPA. The vehicle was 17 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 10.5 feet high, and had six legs to support its three-ton aluminum body, in which it was designed to carry cargo over difficult terrains. However, DARPA lost interest in the ASV, after problems with cold-weather tests.

On February 4, 2004, the agency shut down its so called “LifeLog Project”. The project’s aim would have been, “to gather in a single place just about everything an individual says, sees or does”.

On October 28, 2009, the agency broke ground on a new facility in Arlington County, Virginia a few miles from The Pentagon.

In fall 2011, DARPA hosted the 100-Year Starship Symposium with the aim of getting the public to start thinking seriously about interstellar travel.^[32]

On June 5, 2016, NASA and DARPA announced that it planned to build new X-planes with NASA‘s plan setting to create a whole series of X planes over the next 10 years.

Between 2014 and 2016, DARPA shepherded the first machine-to-machine computer security competition, the Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC), bringing a group of top-notch computer security experts to search for security vulnerabilities, exploit them, and create fixes that patch those vulnerabilities in a fully automated fashion. It is one of DARPA prize competitions to spur innovations.

In June 2018, DARPA leaders demonstrated a number of new technologies that were developed within the framework of the GXV-T program. The goal of this program is to create a lightly armored combat vehicle of not very large dimensions, which, due to maneuverability and other tricks, can successfully resist modern anti-tank weapon systems.

In September 2020, DARPA and the US Air Force announced that the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) are ready for free-flight tests within the next year.

Victoria Coleman became the director of DARPA in November 2020.

In recent years, DARPA officials have contracted out core functions to corporations. For example, during fiscal year 2020, Chenega ran physical security on DARPA’s premises, System High Corp. carried out program security, and Agile Defense ran unclassified IT services. General Dynamics runs classified IT services. Strategic Analysis Inc. provided support services regarding engineering, science, mathematics, and front office and administrative work.

Organization

Current program offices

DARPA has six technical offices that manage the agency’s research portfolio, and two additional offices that manage special projects. All offices report to the DARPA director, including:

The Defense Sciences Office (DSO): DSO identifies and pursues high-risk, high-payoff research initiatives across a broad spectrum of science and engineering disciplines and transforms them into important, new game-changing technologies for U.S. national security. Current DSO themes include novel materials and structures, sensing and measurement, computation and processing, enabling operations, collective intelligence, and global change.
The Information Innovation Office (I2O) aims to ensure U.S. technological superiority in all areas where information can provide a decisive military advantage.
The Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) core mission is the development of high-performance, intelligent microsystems and next-generation components to ensure U.S. dominance in Command, Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR), Electronic Warfare (EW), and Directed Energy (DE). The effectiveness, survivability, and lethality of systems that relate to these applications depend critically on microsystems and components.
The Strategic Technology Office (STO) mission is to focus on technologies that have a global theater-wide impact and that involve multiple Services.
The Tactical Technology Office (TTO) engages in high-risk, high-payoff advanced military research, emphasizing the “system” and “subsystem” approach to the development of aeronautic, space, and land systems as well as embedded processors and control systems
The Biological Technologies Office (BTO) fosters, demonstrates, and transitions breakthrough fundamental research, discoveries, and applications that integrate biology, engineering, and computer science for national security. Created in April 2014 by then Director Arati Prabhakar, taking programs from the MTO and DSO offices.

Former offices

The Adaptive Execution Office (AEO) was created in 2009 by the DARPA Director, Regina Dugan. The office’s four project areas included technology transition, assessment, rapid productivity and adaptive systems. AEO provided the agency with robust connections to the warfighter community and assisted the agency with the planning and execution of technology demonstrations and field trials to promote adoption by the warfighter, accelerating the transition of new technologies into DoD capabilities.
Information Awareness Office: 2002–2003
The Advanced Technology Office (ATO) researched, demonstrated, and developed high payoff projects in maritime, communications, special operations, command and control, and information assurance and survivability mission areas.
The Special Projects Office (SPO) researched, developed, demonstrated, and transitioned technologies focused on addressing present and emerging national challenges. SPO investments ranged from the development of enabling technologies to the demonstration of large prototype systems. SPO developed technologies to counter the emerging threat of underground facilities used for purposes ranging from command-and-control, to weapons storage and staging, to the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction. SPO developed significantly more cost-effective ways to counter proliferated, inexpensive cruise missiles, UAVs, and other platforms used for weapon delivery, jamming, and surveillance. SPO invested in novel space technologies across the spectrum of space control applications including rapid access, space situational awareness, counterspace, and persistent tactical grade sensing approaches including extremely large space apertures and structures.
The Office of Special Development (OSD) in the 1960s developed a real-time remote sensing, monitoring, and predictive activity system on trails used by insurgents in Laos, Cambodia, and the Republic of Vietnam. This was done from an office in Bangkok, Thailand, that was ostensibly established to catalog and support the Thai fishing fleet, of which two volumes were published. This is a personal recollection without a published citation. A report on the ARPA group under which OSD operated is found here.

A 1991 reorganization created several offices which existed throughout the early 1990s:

The Electronic Systems Technology Office combined areas of the Defense Sciences Office and the Defense Manufacturing Office. This new office will focus on the boundary between general-purpose computers and the physical world, such as sensors, displays and the first few layers of specialized signal-processing that couple these modules to standard computer interfaces.
The Software and Intelligent Systems Technology Office and the Computing Systems office will have responsibility associated with the Presidential High-Performance Computing Initiative. The Software office will also be responsible for “software systems technology, machine intelligence and software engineering.”
The Land Systems Office was created to develop advanced land vehicle and anti-armor systems, once the domain of the Tactical Technology Office.
The Undersea Warfare Office combined areas of the Advanced Vehicle Systems and Tactical Technology offices to develop and demonstrate submarine stealth and counter-stealth and automation.

A 2010 reorganization merged two offices:

The Transformational Convergence Technology Office (TCTO) and the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) were combined in 2010 to form the Information Innovation Office (I2O).
- TCTO’s mission was to develop new crosscutting capabilities from a broad range of emerging technological and social trends, particularly in areas related to computing and computing-reliant subareas of the life sciences, social sciences, manufacturing, and commerce.
- IPTO focused on inventing the sensing, networking, computing, and software technologies vital to ensuring DOD military superiority.

Projects

A list of DARPA’s active and archived projects is available on the agency’s website. Because of the agency’s fast pace, programs constantly start and stop based on the needs of the U.S. government. Structured information about some of the DARPA’s contracts and projects is publicly available.

Active projects

AdvaNced airCraft Infrastructure-Less Launch And RecoverY X-Plane (ANCILLARY) (2022): The program is to develop and demonstrate a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) plane that can launch without the supporting infrastructure, with low-weight, high-payload, and long-endurance capabilities. In June 2023, DARPA selected nine companies to produce initial operational system and demonstration system conceptual designs for an uncrewed aerial system (UAS).
AI Cyber Challenge (AIxCC) (2023): It is a two-year competition to identify and fix software vulnerabilities using AI in partnership with Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI which will provide their expertise and their platforms for this competition. There will be a semifinal phase and the final phase. Both competitions will be held at DEF CON in Las Vegas in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
Air Combat Evolution (ACE) (2019): The goal of ACE is to automate air-to-air combat, enabling reaction times at machine speeds. By using human-machine collaborative dogfighting as its challenge problem, ACE seeks to increase trust in combat autonomy. Eight teams from academia and industry were selected in October 2019. In April 2024, DARPA and U.S. Air Force announced that ACE conducted the first-ever in-air dogfighting tests of AI algorithms autonomously flying an F-16 against a human-piloted F-16.
Air Space Total Awareness for Rapid Tactical Execution (ASTARTE) (2020): The program is conducted in partnership with the Army and Air Force on sensors, artificial intelligence algorithms, and virtual testing environments in order to create an understandable common operating picture when troops are spread out across battlefields
Atmospheric Water Extraction (AWE) program
Biomanufacturing: Survival, Utility, and Reliability beyond Earth (B-SURE) (2021): This program aims to address foundational scientific questions to determine how well industrial bio-manufacturing microorganisms perform in space conditions. International Space Station (ISS) announced in April 2023 that Rhodium-DARPA Biomanufacturing 01 investigation was launched on SpaceX, and ISS crew members are carrying out this project which examines gravity’s effect on production of drugs and nutrients from bacteria and yeast.
Big Mechanism: Cancer research. (2015) The program aims to develop technology to read research abstracts and papers to extract pieces of causal mechanisms, assemble these pieces into more complete causal models, and reason over these models to produce explanations. The domain of the program is cancer biology with an emphasis on signaling pathways. It has a successor program called World Modelers.
Binary structure inference system: extract software properties from binary code to support repository-based reverse engineering for micro-patching that minimizes lifecycle maintenance and costs (2020).
Blackjack (2017): a program to develop and test military satellite constellation technologies with a variety of “military-unique sensors and payloads [attached to] commercial satellite buses. …as an ‘architecture demonstration intending to show the high military utility of global LEO constellations and mesh networks of lower size, weight, and cost spacecraft nodes.’ … The idea is to demonstrate that ‘good enough’ payloads in LEO can perform military missions, augment existing programs, and potentially perform ‘on par or better than currently deployed exquisite space systems.'” Blue Canyon Technologies, Raytheon, and SA Photonics Inc. were working on phases 2 and 3 as of fiscal year 2020. On June 12, 2023, DARPA launched four satellites for a technology demonstration in low Earth orbit on the SpaceX Transporter-8 rideshare.
broadband, electro-magnetic spectrum receiver system: prototype and demonstration
BlockADE: Rapidly constructed barrier. (2014)
Captive Air Amphibious Transporter (CAAT)
Causal Exploration of Complex Operational Environments (“Causal Exploration”) – computerized aid to military planning. (2018)
Clean-Slate Design of Resilient, Adaptive, Secure Hosts (CRASH), a DARPA Transformation Convergence Technology Office (TCTO) initiative
Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment (CODE): Modular software architecture for UAVs to pass information to each other in contested environments to identify and engage targets with limited operator direction. (2015)
Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE) (2019): The program seeks to demonstrate an experimental aircraft design based on active flow control (AFC), which is defined as on-demand addition of energy into a boundary layer in order to maintain, recover, or improve aerodynamic performance. The aim is for CRANE to generally improve aircraft performance and reliability while reducing cost. In May 2023, DARPA designated the experimental uncrewed aircraft the X-65 which will use banks of compressed air nozzles to execute maneuvers without traditional, exterior-moving flight controls.
Computational Weapon Optic (CWO) (2015): Computer rifle scope that combines various features into one optic.
DARPA Triage Challenge (DTC) (2023): The DTC will use a series of challenge events to spur development of novel physiological features for medical triage. The three-year competition focuses on improving emergency medical response in military and civilian mass casualty incidents.
DARPA XG (2005) : technology for Dynamic Spectrum Access for assured military communications.
Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) (2021): The program is to demonstrate a nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) in orbit by 2027 in collaboration with NASA (nuclear thermal engine) and U.S. Space Force (launch).
Detection system consisting of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)-based assays paired with reconfigurable point-of-need and massively multi-plexed devices for diagnostics and surveillance
Electronics Resurgence Initiative (ERI) (2019): Started in 2019, the initiative aims at both national security capabilities and commercial economic competitiveness and sustainability. These programs emphasize forward-looking partnerships with U.S. industry, the defense industrial base, and university researchers. In 2023, DARPA expanded ERI’s focus with the announcement of ERI 2.0 seeking to reinvent domestic microelectronics manufacturing.
Experimental Spaceplane 1 (formerly XS-1): In 2017, Boeing was selected for Phases 2 and 3 for the fabrication and flight of a reusable unmanned space transport after it completed the initial design in Phase 1 as one of the three teams.^[101] In January 2020, Boeing ended its role in the program.
Fast Lightweight Autonomy: Software algorithms that enable small UAVs to fly fast in cluttered environments without GPS or external communications. (2014)
Fast Network Interface Cards (FastNICs): develop and integrate new, clean-slate network subsystems in order to speed up applications, such as the distributed training of machine learning classifiers by 100x. Perspecta Labs and Raytheon BBN were working on FastNICs as of fiscal year 2020.
Force Application and Launch from Continental United States (FALCON): a research effort to develop a small satellite launch vehicle. (2008) This vehicle is under development by AirLaunch LLC.
Gamma Ray Inspection Technology (GRIT) program: research and develop high-intensity, tunable, and narrow-bandwidth gamma ray production in compact, transportable form. This technology can be utilized for discovering smuggled nuclear material in cargo via new inspection techniques, and enabling new medical diagnostics and therapies. RadiaBeam Technologies LLC was working on a phase 1 of the program, Laser-Compton approach, in fiscal year 2020.
Glide Breaker program: technology for an advanced interceptor capable of engaging maneuvering hypersonic vehicles or missiles in the upper atmosphere. Northrop Grumman and Aerojet Rocketdyne were working on this program as of fiscal year 2020.
Gremlins (2015): Air-launched and recoverable UAVs with distributed capabilities to provide low-cost flexibility over expensive multirole platforms.^[113] In October 2021, two X-61 Gremlin air vehicles were tested at the Army’s Dugway Proving Ground, Utah.
Ground X-Vehicle Technology (GXV-T) (2015): This program aims to improve mobility, survivability, safety, and effectiveness of future combat vehicles without piling on armor.
High Productivity Computing Systems
High Operational Temperature Sensors (HOTS)(2023): The program is to develop sensor microelectronics consisting of transducers, signal conditioning microelectronics, and integration that operate with high bandwidth (>1 MHz) and dynamic range (>90 dB) at extreme temperatures (i.e., at least 800 °C).
HIVE (Hierarchical Identify Verify Exploit) CPU architecture. (2017)
Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC). This program is a joint DARPA/U.S. Air Force effort that seeks to develop and demonstrate critical technologies to enable an effective and affordable air-launched hypersonic cruise missile.
Hypersonic Boost Glide Systems Research
Insect Allies (2017–2021)
Integrated Sensor is Structure (ISIS): This was a joint DARPA and U.S. Air Force program to develop a sensor of unprecedented proportions to be fully integrated into a stratospheric airship.
Intelligent Integration of Information (I3) in SISTO, 1994–2000 – supported database research and with ARPA CISTO and NASA funded the NSF Digital Library program, that led. a.o. to Google.
Joint All-Domain Warfighting Software (JAWS): software suite featuring automation and predictive analytics for battle management and command & control with tactical coordination for capture (“target custody”) and kill missions. Systems & Technology Research of Woburn, Massachusetts, is working on this project, with an expected completion date of March 2022. Raytheon is also working on this project, with an expected completion date of April 2022.
Lasers for Universal Microscale Optical Systems (LUMOS): integrate heterogeneous materials to bring high performance lasers and amplifiers to manufacturable photonics platforms. As of fiscal year 2020, the Research Foundation for the State University of New York (SUNY) was working to enable “on-chip optical gain” to integrated photonics platforms, and enable complete photonics functionality “on a single substrate for disruptive optical microsystems.”
LongShot (2021): The program is to demonstrate an unmanned air-launched vehicle (UAV) capable of employing air-to-air weapons.^[132] Phase 1 design work started in early 2021. In June 2023, DARPA awarded a Phase 3 contract to General Atomics for the manufacturing and a flight demonstration in 2025 of an air-launched, flying and potentially recoverable missile carrier.
Manta Ray: A 2020 DARPA program to develop a series of autonomous, large-size, unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) capable of long-duration missions and having large payload capacities. In December 2021, DARPA awarded Phase 2 contracts to Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation and Martin Defense Group to work on subsystem testing followed by fabrication and in-water demonstrations of full-scale integrated vehicles.

By May 2024, Manta Ray was not only the descriptor for the DARPA R&D program, but was also the name of a specific prototype UUV built by Northrop Grumman, with initial tests conducted in the Pacific Ocean during 1Q2024. Manta Ray has been designed to be broken down and fit into 5 standard shipping containers, shipped to where it will be deployed, and be reassembled in the theatre of operations where it will be used. DARPA is working with the US Navy to further test and then transition the technology.

Media Forensics (MediFor): A project aimed at automatically spotting digital manipulation in images and videos, including Deepfakes. (2018). MediFor largely ended in 2020 and DARPA launched a follow-on program in 2021 called the semantic forensics, or SemaFor.
MEMS Exchange: Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) Implementation Environment (MX)
Millimeter-wave GaN Maturation (MGM) program: develop new GaN transistor technology to attain high-speed and large voltage swing at the same time. HRL Laboratories LLC, a joint venture between Boeing and General Motors, is working on phase 2 as of fiscal year 2020.
Modular Optical Aperture Building Blocks (MOABB) program (2015): design free-space optical components (e.g., telescope, bulk lasers with mechanical beam-steering, detectors, electronics) in a single device. Create a wafer-scale system that is one hundred times smaller and lighter than existing systems and can steer the optical beam far faster than mechanical components. Research and design electronic-photonic unit cells that can be tiled together to form large-scale planar apertures (up to 10 centimeters in diameter) that can run at 100 watts of optical power. The overall goals of such technology are (1) rapid 3D scanning using devices smaller than a cell-phone camera; (2) high-speed laser communications without mechanical steering; (3) and foliage-penetrating perimeter sensing, remote wind sensing, and long-range 3-D mapping. As of fiscal year 2020, Analog Photonics LLC of Boston, Massachusetts, was working on phase 3 of the program and is expected to finish by May 2022.
Multi- Azimuth Defense Fast Intercept Round Engagement System (MAD-FIRES) program: develop technologies that combine advantages of a missile (guidance, precision, accuracy) with advantages of a bullet (speed, rapid-fire, large ammunition capacity) to be used on a medium-caliber guided projectile in defending ships. Raytheon is currently working on MAD-FIRES phase 3 (enhance seeker performance, and develop a functional demonstration illuminator and engagement manager to engage and defeat a representative surrogate target) and is expected to be finished by November 2022.
Near Zero Power RF and Sensor Operations (N-ZERO): Reducing or eliminating the standby power unattended ground sensors consume. (2015)
Neural implants for soldiers. (2014)
Novel, nonsurgical, bi-directional brain-computer interface with high spacio-temporal resolution and low latency for potential human use.
Open, Programmable, Secure 5G (OPS-5G) (2020): The program is to address security risks of 5G networks by pursuing research leading to the development of a portable standards-compliant network stack for 5G mobile that is open source and secure by design. OPS-5G seeks to create open source software and systems that enable secure 5G and subsequent mobile networks such as 6G.
Operational Fires (OpFires): developing a new mobile ground-launched booster that helps hypersonic boost glide weapons penetrate enemy air defenses. As of 17 July 2020, Lockheed Martin was working on phase 3 of the program (develop propulsion components for the missile’s Stage 2 section) to be completed by January 2022. The system was successfully tested in July 2022.
Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS): DARPA created the program in 2010 to seek to fundamentally increase Close Air Support effectiveness by enabling dismounted ground agents—Joint Terminal Attack Controllers—and combat aircrews to share real-time situational awareness and weapons systems data.
PREventing EMerging Pathogenic Threats (PREEMPT)
QuASAR: Quantum Assisted Sensing and Readout
QuBE: Quantum Effects in Biological Environments
QUEST: Quantum Entanglement Science and Technology
Quiness: Macroscopic Quantum Communications
QUIST: Quantum Information Science and Technology
RADICS: Rapid Attack Detection, Isolation and Characterization Systems
Rational Integrated Design of Energetics (RIDE): developing tools that speed up and facilitate energetics research.
Remote-controlled insects
Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites program (RSGS): a telerobotic and autonomous robotic satellite-servicing project, conceived in 2017. In 2020, DARPA selected Northrop Grumman’s SpaceLogistics as its RSGS partner. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory designed and developed the RSGS robotic arm with DARPA funding. The RSGS system is anticipated to start servicing satellites in space in 2025.
Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency (RACER) (2020): This is a four-year program and aims to make sure algorithms aren’t the limiting part of the system and that autonomous combat vehicles can meet or exceed soldier driving abilities. RACER conducted its third experiment to assess the performance of off-road unmanned vehicles March 12–27, 2023.
SafeGenes: a synthetic biology project to program “undo” sequences into gene editing programs (2016)
Sea Train (2019): The program goal is to develop and demonstrate ways to overcome range limitations in medium unmanned surface vessels by exploiting wave-making resistance reductions. Applied Physical Sciences Corp. of Groton, Connecticut, is undertaking Phase 1 of the Sea Train program, with an expected completion date of March 2022. Sea Train, NOMARS and Manta Ray are the three programs that could significantly impact naval operations by extending the range and payloads for unmanned vessels on and below the surface.
Secure Advanced Framework for Simulation & Modeling (SAFE-SiM) program: build a rapid modeling and simulation environment to enable quick analysis in support of senior-level decision-making. As of fiscal year 2020, Radiance Technologies and L3Harris were working on portions of the program, with expected completion in August and September 2021, respectively.
Securing Information for Encrypted Verification and Evaluation (SIEVE) program: use zero knowledge proofs to enable the verification of capabilities for the US military “without revealing the sensitive details associated with those capabilities.” Galois Inc. of Portland, Oregon, and Stealth Software Technologies of Los Angeles, California, are currently working on the SIEVE program, with a projected completion date of May 2024.
Semantic Forensics (SemaFor) program: develop technologies to automatically detect, attribute, and characterize falsified media (e.g., text, audio, image, video) to defend against automated disinformation. SRI International of Menlo Park, California, and Kitware Inc. of Clifton, New York, are working on the SemaFor program, with an expected completion date of July 2024.
Sensor plants: DARPA “is working on a plan to use plants to gather intelligence information” through DARPA’s Advanced Plant Technologies (APT) program, which aims to control the physiology of plants in order to detect chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats. (2017)
Synthetic Hemo-technologIEs to Locate and Disinfect (SHIELD) (2023): The program aims to develop prophylaxes and prevent bloodstream infections (BSI) caused by bacterial/fungal agents, a threat to military and civilian populations.
SIGMA: A network of radiological detection devices the size of smart phones that can detect small amounts of radioactive materials. The devices are paired with larger detector devices along major roads and bridges. (2016)
SIGMA+ program (2018): by building on concepts theorized in the SIGMA program, develop new sensors and analytics to detect small traces of explosives and chemical and biological weaponry throughout any given large metropolitan area. In October 2021, SIGMA+ program, in collaboration with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD), concluded a three-month-long pilot study with new sensors to support early detection and interdictions of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) threats.
SoSITE: System of Systems Integration Technology and Experimentation: Combinations of aircraft, weapons, sensors, and mission systems that distribute air warfare capabilities across a large number of interoperable manned and unmanned platforms. (2015)
SSITH: System Security Integrated Through Hardware and Firmware – secure hardware platform (2017); basis for open-source, hack-proof voting system project and 2019 system prototype contract
SXCT: Squad X Core Technologies: Digitized, integrated technologies that improve infantry squads’ awareness, precision, and influence. (2015)
SyNAPSE: Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics
Tactical Boost Glide (TBG): Air-launched hypersonic boost glide missile. (2016)
Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node (Tern)(2014): The program seeks to develop ship based UAS systems and technologies to enable a future air vehicle that could provide persistent ISR and strike capabilities beyond the limited range and endurance provided by existing helicopter platforms.
TransApps (Transformative Applications), rapid development and fielding of secure mobile apps in the battlefield
ULTRA-Vis (Urban Leader Tactical Response, Awareness and Visualization): Heads-up display for individual soldiers. (2014)
underwater network, heterogeneous: develop concepts and reconfigurable architecture, leveraging advancement in undersea communications and autonomous ocean systems, to demonstrate utility at sea. Raytheon BBN is currently working on this program, with work expected through 4 May 2021, though if the government exercises all options on the contract then work will continue through 4 February 2024.
Upward Falling Payloads: Payloads stored on the ocean floor that can be activated and retrieved when needed. (2014)
Urban Reconnaissance through Supervised Autonomy (URSA) program: develop technology for use in cities to enable autonomous systems that U.S. infantry and ground forces operate to detect and identify enemies before U.S. troops come across them. Program will factor in algorithms, multiple sensors, and scientific knowledge about human behavior to determine subtle differences between hostiles and innocent civilians. Soar Technology Inc. of Ann Arbor, Michigan, is currently working on pertinent vehicle autonomy technology, with work expected completed by March 2022.
Warrior Web: Soft exosuit to alleviate musculoskeletal stress on soldiers when carrying heavy loads. (2014)
Waste Upcycling for Defense (WUD) (2023): to turn scrap wood, cardboard, paper, and other cellulose-derived matter into sustainable materials such as building materials for re-use.

Past or transitioned projects

4MM (4-minute mile): Wearable jetpack to enable soldiers to run at increased speed.
Air Dominance Initiative: a 2015 program to develop technologies to be used in sixth-generation jet fighters. The Air Dominance Initiative study led to the U.S. Air Force‘s sixth-generation air superiority initiative, the Next Generation Air Dominance.
Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) (2010): A project to build an unmanned anti-submarine warfare vessel.
AGM-158C LRASM: Anti-ship cruise missile.
Adaptive Vehicle Make: Revolutionary approaches to the design, verification, and manufacturing of complex defense systems and vehicles.
ARPA Midcourse Optical Station (AMOS), a research facility that now forms part of the Haleakala Observatory.
ArcLight: Ship-based weapon system capable of striking targets nearly anywhere on the globe, based on the Standard Missile 3.
ARPANET, earliest predecessor of the Internet.
Assault Breaker: technology integration to defeat armored attacks
ASTOVL, precursor of the Joint Strike Fighter program
The Aspen Movie Map allowed one to virtually tour the streets of Aspen, Colorado. Developed in 1978, it is the earliest predecessor to products like Google Street View.
Atlas: A humanoid robot.
Battlefield Illusion
BigDog/Legged Squad Support System (2012): legged robots.
Boeing Pelican
Boeing X-37 (2004): The X-37 program was transferred from NASA to DARPA in September 2004.
The Boeing X-45 unmanned combat aerial vehicle refers to a mid-2000s concept demonstrator for autonomous military aircraft.
Boomerang (mobile shooter detection system): an acoustic gunfire locator developed by BBN Technologies for detecting snipers on military combat vehicles.
CALO or “Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes”: software
Combat Zones That See (CTS): “track everything that moves” in a city by linking up a massive network of surveillance cameras^[220]
Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System (CT2WS) (2011)
Consortium for Execution of Rendezvous and Servicing Operations (CONFERS) (2017).
CPOF: the command post of the future—networked information system for Command control.
DAML
ALASA: (Airborne Launch Assist Space Access): A rocket capable of launching a 100-pound satellite into low Earth orbit for less than $1 million.
FALCON
DARPA Grand Challenge: driverless car competitions
DARPA GXV-T: Ground X Vehicle
Hydra: Undersea network of mobile unmanned sensors. (2013)
DARPA Network Challenge (before 2010)
DARPA Shredder Challenge 2011 – Reconstruction of shredded documents
DARPA Silent Talk: A planned program attempting to identify EEG patterns for words and transmit these for covert communications.
DARPA Spectrum Challenge (2014)
DEFENDER
Defense Simulation Internet, a wide-area network supporting Distributed Interactive Simulation
Discoverer II radar satellite constellation
EATR^[228]
EXACTO: Sniper rifle firing guided smart bullets.
GALE: Global Autonomous Language Exploitation
High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP): An ionospheric research program jointly funded by DARPA, the U.S. Air Force’s AFRL and the U.S. Navy’s NRL. The most prominent area during this research was the high-power radio frequency transmitter facility, which tested the use of the Ionospheric Research Instrument (IRI).
High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS) The goal of the HELLADS program was to develop a 150 kilowatt (kW) laser weapon system. In 2015, DARPA’s contractor, General Atomics, successfully demonstrated a prototype. In 2020, General Atomics and Boeing announced to develop a 100 kW liquid laser system, with plans to scale it up to 250 kW.
High Performance Knowledge Bases
HISSS
Human Universal Load Carrier: battery-powered human exoskeleton.
Hypersonic Research Program
Luke Arm, a DEKA creation produced under the Revolutionizing Prosthetics program.
MAHEM: Molten penetrating munition.
MEMEX (2014–2017): an online search tool to fight human trafficking crimes on the dark web. In 2016, DARPA Memex program received the 2016 Presidential Award for Extraordinary Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons for the development of the anti-trafficking technology tool. The program was named and inspired by the Vannevar Bush‘s hypothetical device described in his 1945 article.
MeshWorm: an earthworm-like robot.
Mind’s Eye: A visual intelligence system capable of detecting and analyzing activity from video feeds.^[237]
MOSIS
MQ-1 Predator
Multics
Next Generation Tactical Wearable Night Vision: Smaller and lighter sunglass-sized night vision devices that can switch between different viewing bands.
NLS/Augment: the origin of the canonical contemporary computer user interface
Northrop Grumman Switchblade: an unmanned oblique-wing flying aircraft for high speed, long range and long endurance flight
One Shot: Sniper scope that automatically measures crosswind and range to ensure accuracy in field conditions.
Onion routing, a technique developed in the mid-1990s and later employed by Tor to anonymize communications over a computer network.
Passive radar
Phoenix: A 2012–early-2015 satellite project with the aim to recycle retired satellite parts into new on-orbit assets. The project was initiated in July 2012 with plans for system launches no earlier than 2016. At the time, Satlet tests in low Earth orbit were projected to occur as early as 2015.
Policy Analysis Market, evaluating the trading of information futures contracts based on possible political developments in several Middle Eastern countries. An application of prediction markets.
POSSE
Project AGILE, a Vietnam War-era investigation into methods of remote, asymmetric warfare for use in conflicts with Communist insurgents.
Project MAC
Proto 2: a thought-controlled prosthetic arm
Rapid Knowledge Formation^{[citation needed]}
Sea Shadow
SIMNET: Wide area network with vehicle simulators and displays for real-time distributed combat simulation: tanks, helicopters and airplanes in a virtual battlefield.
System F6—Future, Fast, Flexible, Fractionated Free-flying Spacecraft United by Information Exchange—technology demonstrator: a 2006–2012
I3 (Intelligent Integration of Information), supported the Digital Library research effort through NSF
Strategic Computing Program
Synthetic Aperture Ladar for Tactical Applications (SALTI)
XOS: powered military exoskeleton $226 million technology development program. Cancelled in 2013 before the notionally planned 2015 launch date.
SURAN (1983–87)
Project Vela (1963)
UAVForge (2011)
Vertical Take-Off and Landing Experimental Aircraft (VTOL X-Plane) (2013)
Viet Cong Motivation and Morale Project (1964–1968)
Vulture: Long endurance, high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle.
VLSI Project (1978) – Its offspring include BSD Unix, the RISC processor concept, many CAD tools still in use today.
Walrus HULA: high-capacity, long range cargo airship.
Wireless Network after Next (WNaN), advanced tactical mobile ad hoc network
WolfPack (2010)
XDATA: Processing and analyzing vast amounts of information. (2012)
Rockwell-MBB X-31
Grumman X-29

Notable fiction

DARPA is well known as a high-tech government agency, and as such has many appearances in popular fiction. Some realistic references to DARPA in fiction are as “ARPA” in Tom Swift and the Visitor from Planet X (DARPA consults on a technical threat), in episodes of television program The West Wing (the ARPA-DARPA distinction), the television program Numb3rs, and the Netflix film Spectral.

Resources

en.wikipedia.org, DARPA.” By Wikipedia Editors; linkedin.com, “Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).”;

Locations

Mission

What does DARPA do?

How powerful is DARPA?

What is the DARPA five-year rule?

How did DARPA start?

What is DARPA’s research?

How does DARPA research new technology?

History

Early history (1958–1969)

Later history (1970–1980)

Recent history (1981–present)

Organization

Current program offices

Former offices

Projects

Active projects

Past or transitioned projects

Notable fiction

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