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DARPA

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.[3][4]

This article is about the US military research agency. For other uses, see DARPA (disambiguation).

Agency overview

February 7, 1958 (1958-02-07) (as ARPA)

  • Advanced Research Projects Agency

675 North Randolph St., Ballston, Virginia, U.S.

220[1]

$3.868 billion (FY2022)[2]

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.[5]


The Economist has called DARPA the agency that shaped the modern world, with technologies like "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."[6] Its track record of success has inspired governments around the world to launch similar research and development agencies.[6]


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.[7]


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.[8]


The agency's current director, appointed in March 2021, is Stefanie Tompkins.[9]

Mission[edit]

As of 2021, their mission statement is "to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security".[10]

DARPA history

The formative years
(1958–1975)
The Cold War era
(1975–1989)
The Post-Soviet years
(1989–present)

Organization[edit]

Current program offices[edit]

DARPA has six technical offices that manage the agency's research portfolio, and two additional offices that manage special projects.[44][45] All offices report to the DARPA director, including:

AdvaNced airCraft Infrastructure-Less Launch And RecoverY X-Plane (ANCILLARY) (2022): The program is to develop and demonstrate a vertical takeoff and landing () plane that can launch without the supporting infrastructure, with low-weight, high-payload, and long-endurance capabilities.[57] In June 2023, DARPA selected nine companies to produce initial operational system and demonstration system conceptual designs for an uncrewed aerial system (UAS).[58]

VTOL

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.[60] 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.[61]

[59]

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.[63][64] Eight teams from academia and industry were selected in October 2019.[62] 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.[65][66]

[62]

(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[67][68]

Air Space Total Awareness for Rapid Tactical Execution

Atmospheric Water Extraction (AWE) program

[69]

(2021): This program aims to address foundational scientific questions to determine how well industrial bio-manufacturing microorganisms perform in space conditions.[70] 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.[71]

Biomanufacturing: Survival, Utility, and Reliability beyond Earth (B-SURE)

: Cancer research. (2015)[72] 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.[73][74][75]

Big Mechanism

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).

[76]

(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.'"[77] Blue Canyon Technologies,[78] Raytheon,[79] and SA Photonics Inc.[80] 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.[81]

Blackjack

broadband, electro-magnetic spectrum receiver system: prototype and demonstration

[82]

: Rapidly constructed barrier. (2014)[83]

BlockADE

(CAAT)[84]

Captive Air Amphibious Transporter

Causal Exploration of Complex Operational Environments ("Causal Exploration") – computerized aid to . (2018)[85][86]

military planning

Clean-Slate Design of Resilient, Adaptive, Secure Hosts (CRASH), a DARPA Transformation Convergence Technology Office (TCTO) initiative

[87]

(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)[88][89]

Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment

(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.[90][91] 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.[92]

Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE)

(CWO) (2015): Computer rifle scope that combines various features into one optic.[93]

Computational Weapon Optic

(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.[94][95]

DARPA Triage Challenge (DTC)

 : technology for Dynamic Spectrum Access for assured military communications.[96]

DARPA XG (2005)

(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).[97]

Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO)

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

[98]

(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.[99][100]

Electronics Resurgence Initiative

(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.[102]

Experimental Spaceplane 1

: Software algorithms that enable small UAVs to fly fast in cluttered environments without GPS or external communications. (2014)[103]

Fast Lightweight Autonomy

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[105] and Raytheon BBN[106] were working on FastNICs as of fiscal year 2020.

[104]

(FALCON): a research effort to develop a small satellite launch vehicle. (2008)[107] This vehicle is under development by AirLaunch LLC.[108]

Force Application and Launch from Continental United States

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.[110]

[109]

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[112] were working on this program as of fiscal year 2020.

[111]

(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.[114]

Gremlins

(GXV-T) (2015): This program aims to improve mobility, survivability, safety, and effectiveness of future combat vehicles without piling on armor.[115][116]

Ground X-Vehicle Technology

[117]

High Productivity Computing Systems

(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).[118]

High Operational Temperature Sensors

CPU architecture. (2017)[119]

HIVE (Hierarchical Identify Verify Exploit)

(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.[120]

Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept

Hypersonic Boost Glide Systems Research

[121]

(2017–2021)[122][123][124]

Insect Allies

(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.[125]

Integrated Sensor is Structure

Intelligent Integration of Information (I3) in SISTO, 1994–2000 – supported database research and with ARPA CISTO and funded the NSF Digital Library program, that led. a.o. to Google.[126]

NASA

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.[128] Raytheon is also working on this project, with an expected completion date of April 2022.[129]

[127]

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."[131]

[130]

LongShot (2021): The program is to demonstrate an unmanned air-launched vehicle (UAV) capable of employing air-to-air weapons. 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.[133]

[132]

Manta Ray: A 2020 DARPA program to develop a series of autonomous, large-size, (UUVs) capable of long-duration missions and having large payload capacities.[134][135] 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.[136]

unmanned underwater vehicles

Notable fiction[edit]

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),[252] in episodes of television program The West Wing (the ARPA-DARPA distinction), the television program Numb3rs,[253] and the Netflix film Spectral.[254]

(NWC)

Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center

(AFRL)

Air Force Research Laboratory

(ARPA-E)

Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy

(ARPA-H)

Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health

(ARPA-I)

Advanced Research Projects Agency–Infrastructure

(ERDC)

Engineer Research and Development Center

(HSARPA)

Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency

(IARPA)

Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity

(JEDI)

Joint European Disruptive Initiative

(LBNL or LBL)

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

(LLNL)

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

(LANL)

Los Alamos National Laboratory

(MCCDC)

Marine Corps Combat Development Command

(NAWS)

Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake

(NRL)

Naval Research Laboratory

(ONR)

Office of Naval Research

(PNNL)

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

(SNL)

Sandia National Laboratories

(ARDEC)

United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center

(RDECOM)

United States Army Research, Development and Engineering Command

(ARL)

United States Army Research Laboratory

(MCWL)

United States Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory

Archived 2019-08-22 at the Wayback Machine, Barber Associates, December 1975.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency, 1958-1974

Archived 2019-08-22 at the Wayback Machine, Volumes 1–3, Richard H. Van Atta, Sidney G. Reed, Seymour J. Deitchman, et al., Institute for Defense Analyses, January 1990 - March 1991.

DARPA Technical Accomplishments: 1958-1990

Belfiore, Michael (2009). . Harper. ISBN 9780061577932. OCLC 310399265. William Saletan writes of Belfiore's book that "His tone is reverential and at times breathless, but he captures the agency's essential virtues: boldness, creativity, agility, practicality and speed." (Saletan, William (December 24, 2009). "The Body Electric". The New York Times.)

The Department of Mad Scientists: How DARPA Is Remaking Our World, from the Internet to Artificial Limbs

Castell, Manuel, The Network Society: A Cross-cultural Perspective, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, Cheltenham, UK, 2004.

(2015). The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0316371766. OCLC 900012161.

Jacobsen, Annie

Norberg, Arthur Lawrence; O'Neill, Judy Elizabeth; Freedman, Kerry J. (1996). . Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-5152-0.

Transforming Computer Technology: Information Processing for the Pentagon, 1962-1986

Sargent, John F. Jr. (February 21, 2018). (PDF). Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 5, 2018. Retrieved March 26, 2018.

Defense Science and Technology Funding

Sedgwick, John (August 1991). "The Men from DARPA". . Vol. 3, no. 8. pp. 108–109, 122, 154–156.

Playboy

The Imagineers of War: The Untold Story of DARPA, the Pentagon Agency that Changed the World, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2017, ISBN 9780385351799.

Weinberger, Sharon

Official website