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Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Logo of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Headquarters in Ballston in Arlington County, Virginia in 2022
Agency overview
Formed	February 7, 1958; 68 years ago (1958-02-07) (as ARPA)
Preceding agency	Advanced Research Projects Agency
Jurisdiction	Federal government of the United States
Headquarters	675 North Randolph St., Ballston, Virginia, U.S. 38°52′44″N 77°06′32″W / 38.8788°N 77.1088°W / 38.8788; -77.1088
Employees	220[1]
Annual budget	$4.122 billion (FY2024)[2]
Agency executive	Stephen Winchell, Director
Parent department	United States Department of Defense
Website	www.darpa.mil

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency within the United States Department of Defense that funds and manages research programs aimed at developing breakthrough technologies for U.S. national security.^[3][4]

The agency was established as the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) on February 7, 1958, in the aftermath of the Sputnik 1 launch by the Soviet Union in 1957.^[5] It adopted the name DARPA in 1972, briefly reverted to ARPA in 1993, and returned to DARPA in 1996.^[6]

DARPA works with universities, industry, and government partners to pursue high-risk, high-reward research and prototype development, including projects that may not align with near-term operational requirements.^[7][8]

The Economist described DARPA as "the agency that shaped the modern world" and credited it with helping seed a range of technologies, including early work related to the internet, GPS, and stealth technology.^[9] DARPA’s model has influenced other governments that have launched similar agencies.^[9]

DARPA reports directly to senior Department of Defense leadership and operates separately from the military services’ research organizations. It comprises about 220 government employees in six technical offices, including nearly 100 program managers, who oversee roughly 250 research and development programs.^[10] The agency is led by Director Stephen Winchell.^[11]

ARPA emerged as an institutional response to the strategic shock of Sputnik. The President's Scientific Advisory Committee proposed the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to President Dwight D. Eisenhower at a meeting convened after the satellite’s launch.^[12] Eisenhower authorized ARPA in 1958 to initiate and manage research and development (R&D) projects intended to push technology beyond immediate military requirements.^[7] Two authorities frequently cited for ARPA’s early footing are the Supplemental Military Construction Authorization (Air Force) (Public Law 85-325)^[13] and Department of Defense Directive 5105.15 (February 1958). ARPA sat within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and initially employed roughly 150 people.^[14] Contemporary accounts attributed ARPA’s creation to the Sputnik launch and to U.S. concern that the Soviet Union could rapidly exploit military technology. Initial appropriations totaled $520 million.^[15]

Leadership choices signaled the agency’s early urgency and ambition. ARPA’s first director, Roy Johnson, left a $160,000 management position at General Electric to take an $18,000 government job.^[16][17] Johnson brought in Herbert York from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as his scientific assistant.^[18]

The creation of NASA soon reshaped ARPA’s portfolio and mission. Johnson and York initially emphasized space programs, but NASA’s establishment in 1958 moved those projects—and much of ARPA’s funding—into the new civilian agency. Johnson resigned, and ARPA refocused on basic research characterized in contemporary accounts as “high-risk” and “high-gain,” a shift that drew strong support from research universities and the broader scientific community.^[19] Brigadier General Austin W. Betts served as ARPA’s second director, resigning in early 1961; Jack Ruina succeeded him and served until 1963.^[20] Ruina, the first scientist to lead the agency, increased ARPA’s annual budget to $250 million.^[21] Ruina also recruited J. C. R. Licklider to lead the Information Processing Techniques Office, which later played a central role in the creation of ARPANET, a precursor to the Internet.^[22]

ARPA’s early program strategy aimed at problems the Military Services could not easily pursue on their own. Defense and policy leaders sought a DoD-level organization that could formulate and execute R&D programs spanning multiple scientific disciplines and extending beyond service-specific requirements. Between 1958 and 1965, ARPA emphasized major national security problems, including space, ballistic missile defense, and nuclear test detection.^[23] In 1960, ARPA transferred its civilian space programs to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and its military space programs to the individual services.^[24]

Those transfers concentrated ARPA’s work in several flagship efforts. ARPA pursued Project Defender (ballistic missile defense), Project Vela (nuclear test detection), and Project AGILE (counterinsurgency R&D), while expanding work in computer processing, behavioral sciences, and materials science. The DEFENDER and AGILE programs supported early sensor and surveillance research, including work on radar, infrared sensing, and x-ray/gamma ray detection, as well as related directed-energy research.

ARPA also contributed to early satellite navigation. In 1959, ARPA played an early role in Transit (also known as NavSat), a predecessor to the Global Positioning System (GPS).^[25] A joint effort between ARPA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory helped refine satellite positioning, with Transit sponsored by the Navy and developed at Johns Hopkins under Richard Kirschner.^[26][27]

As major programs matured, ARPA narrowed its role and shifted toward exploratory research. In the late 1960s, ARPA transitioned many mature efforts to the Services and concentrated on smaller, more experimental programs. The agency adopted the name Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 1972, and in the early 1970s it emphasized directed-energy programs, information processing, and tactical technologies.^{[27][citation needed]}

Work in information processing became one of DARPA’s most visible lines of effort. DARPA supported early development of time-sharing, which allowed multiple users to interact with a single computer system by sharing processing time. Modern operating systems incorporate concepts developed for Multics, created through collaboration among Bell Labs, General Electric, and MIT. DARPA supported that work by funding Project MAC at MIT with an initial two-million-dollar grant.^[28]

Networking and human–computer interaction research also expanded during this period. DARPA supported the evolution of the ARPANET (a wide-area packet-switching network that sent data in small “packets” rather than as a single continuous stream), the Packet Radio Network, and the Packet Satellite Network, which helped lay foundations for the Internet. DARPA also funded research in artificial intelligence—including speech recognition and signal processing—and supported projects such as Shakey the robot.^[29] Related efforts included early work on hypertext and hypermedia. DARPA funded one of the first two hypertext systems, Douglas Engelbart's NLS computer system, and later supported the Aspen Movie Map, often described as an early hypermedia system and a precursor to virtual reality.

In the early 1970s, Congress narrowed the scope of DoD research funding through the Mansfield Amendment (1973). The amendment limited appropriations for defense research— including work funded through ARPA/DARPA—to projects with a direct military application.

That shift changed incentives in the research ecosystem. Some accounts link the tighter focus on near-term military relevance to a “brain drain” from universities, as younger computer scientists moved into startups and private research laboratories such as Xerox PARC. Those movements coincided with the early growth of the personal computer industry, though sources differ on how large a causal role the amendment played.

During the late 1970s and into the early 1980s, DARPA concentrated many large programs on military platforms and supporting technologies. Major efforts emphasized air, land, sea, and space systems; tactical armor and anti-armor programs; infrared sensing for space-based surveillance; high-energy laser technology associated with space-based missile defense; antisubmarine warfare; advanced cruise missiles and aircraft; and defense applications of advanced computing.

As programs matured, DARPA transferred many technologies and program lines to the Military Services and other DoD organizations for continued development and fielding. Examples include work on automatic target recognition, space-based sensing, propulsion, and materials, some of which later supported the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO), later the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) and now the Missile Defense Agency (MDA).

In the 1980s, DARPA emphasized information-processing and aircraft-related programs, including the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) (also known as the Hypersonic Research Program). The Strategic Computing Program supported work in advanced computing and networking, and it aimed to rebuild and strengthen DARPA’s ties with universities after the Vietnam War. During the same period, DARPA pursued concepts for small, lightweight satellites (LIGHTSAT) and launched programs focused on defense manufacturing, submarine technology, and armor/anti-armor.

DARPA also funded experimental mobility research in the early 1980s. In 1981, engineers Robert McGhee and Kenneth Waldron began developing the Adaptive Suspension Vehicle (ASV), nicknamed the “Walker,” at Ohio State University under a DARPA research contract.^[30] The vehicle measured about 17 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 10.5 feet high, and it used six legs to support a three-ton aluminum body intended to carry cargo over difficult terrain. DARPA later ended its interest in the ASV after cold-weather testing problems.^[31]

After the September 11 attacks, DARPA launched programs that drew public scrutiny for their implications for privacy and government data collection. In 2001, DARPA created the Information Awareness Office (IAO) with the stated mission of applying surveillance technologies to identify terrorists and other threats through “Total Information Awareness.”^[32] Press accounts described the initiative as aiming to integrate large databases of Americans’ personal data—including communications and transaction records—without a requirement for a search warrant.^[33] In 2003, after public criticism that the effort could enable mass surveillance, Congress defunded the IAO; later reporting stated that several projects continued under other names, and related programs surfaced in reporting following Edward Snowden’s 2013 mass surveillance disclosures.^[34][35]

In 2004, DARPA ended the “LifeLog” project. Reporting described LifeLog as an effort that would have aimed “to gather in a single place just about everything an individual says, sees or does.”^[36]

In the late 2000s and 2010s, DARPA continued to expand its facilities and public-facing initiatives. On October 28, 2009, the agency broke ground on a new facility in Arlington County, Virginia, a few miles from The Pentagon.^[37] In fall 2011, DARPA hosted the 100-Year Starship Symposium to encourage public discussion of interstellar travel.^[38]

DARPA also sponsored demonstrations and competitions intended to accelerate technical progress in specific areas. Between 2014 and 2016, DARPA ran the Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC), a computer security competition focused on automated systems that could find software vulnerabilities, demonstrate exploits, and generate patches without human intervention.^[39][40] In June 2018, DARPA leaders demonstrated technologies developed under the GXV-T program, which aimed to develop a lightly armored combat vehicle that could use mobility and other approaches to counter modern anti-tank weapon systems.^[41]

DARPA has continued work on hypersonics and experimental aircraft in the 2010s and 2020s. On June 5, 2016, NASA and DARPA announced plans to build new X-planes, alongside NASA’s broader plan to develop a series of X-planes over the next decade.^[42] In September 2020, DARPA and the U.S. Air Force announced that the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) program was ready for free-flight tests within the next year.^[43]

Leadership and support arrangements have also evolved in recent years. Victoria Coleman became the director of DARPA in November 2020.^[44] In fiscal year 2020, DARPA used contractors for several support functions, including physical security (Chenega), program security (System High Corp.), unclassified IT services (Agile Defense), and classified IT services (General Dynamics). Strategic Analysis Inc. provided engineering, science, mathematics, and administrative support services.^{[45][46][47][48][49]}

• DARPA history
• The formative years
  (1958–1975)
• The Cold War era
  (1975–1989)
• The post-Soviet years
  (1989–present)

DARPA operates under the Office of the Secretary of Defense and organizes most of its research through program offices. Each office sponsors and manages time-limited research programs, typically led by program managers who work with performers in government, industry, and academia.

DARPA groups its R&D work into six technical offices and maintains additional offices for special projects and technology transition (moving promising research into use by the Department of Defense and other operators).^[50][51]

DARPA has periodically reorganized its office structure to match changing research priorities and to consolidate overlapping portfolios.

• 1991 reorganization: reporting described a restructuring that created several offices for the early 1990s.^[62]
  • The Electronic Systems Technology Office combined areas from the Defense Sciences Office and the Defense Manufacturing Office and focused on technologies that connect computers to the physical world (for example, sensors, displays, and specialized signal processing).
  • The Software and Intelligent Systems Technology Office and the Computing Systems office carried responsibilities tied to the Presidential High-Performance Computing Initiative; the software office also covered software systems technology, machine intelligence, and software engineering.
  • The Land Systems Office focused on advanced land-vehicle and anti-armor systems that had previously sat within the Tactical Technology Office portfolio.
  • The Undersea Warfare Office combined work from the Advanced Vehicle Systems and Tactical Technology offices to develop and demonstrate submarine stealth, counter-stealth, and automation.
• 2010 consolidation: DARPA combined the Transformational Convergence Technology Office (TCTO) and the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) to form the Information Innovation Office (I2O).^[56][63]
  • TCTO sponsored cross-cutting capabilities linked to emerging technical and social trends, including areas where computing supports life sciences, social sciences, manufacturing, and commerce.
  • IPTO sponsored sensing, networking, computing, and software work associated with military information advantage.^[64]

DARPA’s directors (including acting directors) are listed below.^[65]

Legend: rows shaded pale yellow indicate acting directors.

Directors of DARPA (1958–present)

No.	Portrait	Director	Status	Term start	Term end	Ref(s)
1		Roy W. Johnson	Director	1958	1959
2		Austin W. Betts	Director	1960	1961
3		Jack Ruina	Director	1961	1963
4		Robert Sproull	Director	1963	1965
5		Charles M. Herzfeld	Director	June 1965	March 1967
6		Eberhardt Rechtin	Director	1967	1970
7		Stephen J. Lukasik	Director	1970	1975
8		George H. Heilmeier	Director	1975	1977
9		Robert R. Fossum	Director	1977	1981
10		Robert S. Cooper	Director	1981	1985
11		Robert C. Duncan	Director	1985	1988
12		Ray S. Colladay	Director	1988	1989
13		Craig I. Fields	Director	1989	1990
14		Victor H. Reis	Director	1990	1992
15		Gary L. Denman	Director	1992	1995
16		Verne L. "Larry" Lynn	Director	1995	1998
17		Fernando L. "Frank" Fernandez	Director	1998	2001
18		Anthony J. Tether	Director	June 18, 2001	February 20, 2009	[66]
—		Robert Leheny	Acting	February 21, 2009	July 19, 2009	[67]
19		Regina E. Dugan	Director	July 20, 2009	March 2012	[68]
—		Kaigham "Ken" Gabriel	Acting	March 2012	July 29, 2012	[68]
20		Arati Prabhakar	Director	July 30, 2012	January 20, 2017	[69]
—		Steven H. Walker	Acting	January 20, 2017	November 8, 2017	[70]
21		Steven H. Walker	Director	November 8, 2017	January 10, 2019	[71]
—		Peter Highnam	Acting	January 11, 2019	September 23, 2020
22		Victoria Coleman	Director	September 24, 2020	January 20, 2021	[72]
—		Peter Highnam	Acting	January 20, 2021	March 14, 2021	[73]
23		Stefanie Tompkins	Director	March 15, 2021	January 20, 2025	[74][75]
—		Rob McHenry	Acting	January 20, 2025	May 19, 2025
24		Stephen Winchell	Director	May 19, 2025	Incumbent	[76][77]

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.^[78]

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• 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.^[79] In June 2023, DARPA selected nine companies to produce initial operational system and demonstration system conceptual designs for an uncrewed aerial system (UAS).^[80]
• 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.^[81][82][83] There will be a semifinal phase and the final phase. The finale will be held at DEF CON in Las Vegas in 2024 and 2025, respectively.^[84]
• Air Combat Evolution (ACE) (2019): The goal of ACE is to automate air-to-air combat, enabling reaction times at machine speeds.^[85] By using human-machine collaborative dogfighting as its challenge problem, ACE seeks to increase trust in combat autonomy.^[86] Eight teams from academia and industry were selected in October 2019.^[85] 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.^[87][88]
• 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^[89][90]
• 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.^[91] 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.^[92]
• Big Mechanism: Cancer research. (2015)^[93] 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.^[94][95][96]
• 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).^[97]
• 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.'"^[98] Blue Canyon Technologies,^[99] Raytheon,^[100] and SA Photonics Inc.^[101] 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.^[102]
• BlockADE: Rapidly constructed barrier. (2014)^[103]
• Causal Exploration of Complex Operational Environments ("Causal Exploration") – computerized aid to military planning. (2018)^[104][105]
• 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)^[106][107]
• 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.^[108][109] 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.^[110]
• Computational Weapon Optic (CWO) (2015): Computer rifle scope that combines various features into one optic.^[111]
• 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.^[112][113]
• DARPA XG (2005) : technology for Dynamic Spectrum Access for assured military communications.^[114]
• 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).^[115]
• 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^[116]
• 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.^[117][118]
• 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.^[119] In January 2020, Boeing ended its role in the program.^[120]
• Fast Lightweight Autonomy: Software algorithms that enable small UAVs to fly fast in cluttered environments without GPS or external communications. (2014)^[121]
• 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.^[122] Perspecta Labs^[123] and Raytheon BBN^[124] 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)^[125] This vehicle is under development by AirLaunch LLC.^[126]
• 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.^[127] RadiaBeam Technologies LLC was working on a phase 1 of the program, Laser-Compton approach, in fiscal year 2020.^[128]
• Glide Breaker program: technology for an advanced interceptor capable of engaging maneuvering hypersonic vehicles or missiles in the upper atmosphere. Northrop Grumman^[129] and Aerojet Rocketdyne^[130] 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.^[131] In October 2021, two X-61 Gremlin air vehicles were tested at the Army's Dugway Proving Ground, Utah.^[132]
• 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.^[133][134]
• 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).^[135]
• HIVE (Hierarchical Identify Verify Exploit) CPU architecture. (2017)^[136]
• 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.^[137]
• Insect Allies (2017–2021)^{[138][139][140]}
• 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.^[141]
• 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.^[142] Systems & Technology Research of Woburn, Massachusetts, is working on this project, with an expected completion date of March 2022.^[143] Raytheon is also working on this project, with an expected completion date of April 2022.^[144]
• Lasers for Universal Microscale Optical Systems (LUMOS): integrate heterogeneous materials to bring high performance lasers and amplifiers to manufacturable photonics platforms.^[145] 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."^[146]
• LongShot (2021): The program is to demonstrate an unmanned air-launched vehicle (UAV) capable of employing air-to-air weapons.^[147] 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.^[148]
• 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.^[149][150] 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.^[151]

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.^[152]

• Media Forensics (MediFor): A project aimed at automatically spotting digital manipulation in images and videos, including Deepfakes. (2018).^[153][154] MediFor largely ended in 2020 and DARPA launched a follow-on program in 2021 called the semantic forensics, or SemaFor.^[155]
• Millimeter-wave GaN Maturation (MGM) program: develop new GaN transistor technology to attain high-speed and large voltage swing at the same time.^[156] HRL Laboratories LLC, a joint venture between Boeing and General Motors, is working on phase 2 as of fiscal year 2020.^[157]
• 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.^[158] 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.^[159]
• 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.^[160] 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.^[161]
• Near Zero Power RF and Sensor Operations (N-ZERO): Reducing or eliminating the standby power unattended ground sensors consume. (2015)^[162]
• Neural implants for soldiers. (2014)^[163][164]
• No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS): USX-1 Defiant, a medium uncrewed surface vessel (USV) was first seen in public in March 2025^[165]
• Novel, nonsurgical, bi-directional brain-computer interface with high spacio-temporal resolution and low latency for potential human use.^[166]
• 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.^[167][168]
• Operational Fires (OpFires): developing a new mobile ground-launched booster that helps hypersonic boost glide weapons penetrate enemy air defenses.^[169] 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.^[170] The system was successfully tested in July 2022.^[171]
• 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.^[172]
• Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites program (RSGS): a telerobotic and autonomous robotic satellite-servicing project, conceived in 2017.^[173] 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.^[174]
• 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.^[175][176] RACER conducted its third experiment to assess the performance of off-road unmanned vehicles March 12–27, 2023.^[177]
• SafeGenes: a synthetic biology project to program "undo" sequences into gene editing programs (2016)^[178]
• 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.^[179][159] Applied Physical Sciences Corp. of Groton, Connecticut, is undertaking Phase 1 of the Sea Train program, with an expected completion date of March 2022.^[159] 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.^[180]
• 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^[181] and L3Harris^[182] 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."^[183] 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.^[184][185]
• 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 Park, New York, are working on the SemaFor program, with an expected completion date of July 2024.^[186][187]
• 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)^[188]
• 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.^[189]
• 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)^[190]
• 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.^[191] 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.^[192]
• 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)^[193]
• 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^[194]
• SXCT: Squad X Core Technologies: Digitized, integrated technologies that improve infantry squads' awareness, precision, and influence. (2015)^[195]
• Tactical Boost Glide (TBG): Air-launched hypersonic boost glide missile. (2016)^{[196][197][198]}
• 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.^{[199][200][201]}
• ULTRA-Vis (Urban Leader Tactical Response, Awareness and Visualization): Heads-up display for individual soldiers. (2014)^[202]
• underwater network, heterogeneous: develop concepts and reconfigurable architecture, leveraging advancement in undersea communications and autonomous ocean systems, to demonstrate utility at sea.^[203] 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.^[203]
• Upward Falling Payloads: Payloads stored on the ocean floor that can be activated and retrieved when needed. (2014)^[204]
• 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.^[205] Soar Technology Inc. of Ann Arbor, Michigan, is currently working on pertinent vehicle autonomy technology, with work expected completed by March 2022.^[206]
• Warrior Web: Soft exosuit to alleviate musculoskeletal stress on soldiers when carrying heavy loads. (2014)^[207]
• 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.^[208]

• Atmospheric Water Extraction (AWE) program[82]
• Captive Air Amphibious Transporter (CAAT)[97]
• broadband, electro-magnetic spectrum receiver system: prototype and demonstration[95]
• Clean-Slate Design of Resilient, Adaptive, Secure Hosts (CRASH), a DARPA Transformation Convergence Technology Office (TCTO) initiative[100]
• High Productivity Computing Systems[130]
• Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC)[133]
• Hypersonic Boost Glide Systems Research[134]
• Integrated Sensor is Structure (ISIS)[138] - 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.^[209]
• MEMS Exchange[154][155] - Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) Implementation Environment (MX)^[210][211]
• PREventing EMerging Pathogenic Threats (PREEMPT)^[212]
• QuASAR: Quantum Assisted Sensing and Readout^[when?][213]
• QuBE: Quantum Effects in Biological Environments^[when?][214]
• QUEST: Quantum Entanglement Science and Technology^[215]
• Quiness: Macroscopic Quantum Communications^[216][217]
• QUIST: Quantum Information Science and Technology^{[when?][218][219][220]}
• RADICS: Rapid Attack Detection, Isolation and Characterization Systems^[221][222]
• Rational Integrated Design of Energetics (RIDE): developing tools that speed up and facilitate energetics research.^[223]
• Remote-controlled insects^[224]
• SyNAPSE[209] - Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics^[225]
• TransApps (Transformative Applications) - rapid development and fielding of secure mobile apps in the battlefield

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),^[270] in episodes of television program The West Wing (the ARPA-DARPA distinction), the television program Numb3rs,^[271] and the Netflix film Spectral.^[272]

• Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center (NWC)
• Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)
• Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E)
• Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)
• Advanced Research Projects Agency–Infrastructure (ARPA-I)
• Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC)
• Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA)
• Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA)
• Joint European Disruptive Initiative (JEDI)
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL or LBL)
• Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)
• Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
• Marine Corps Combat Development Command (MCCDC)
• Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake (NAWS)
• Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)
• Office of Naval Research (ONR)
• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
• Sandia National Laboratories (SNL)
• United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC)
• United States Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM)
• United States Army Research Laboratory (ARL)
• United States Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL)

• The Advanced Research Projects Agency, 1958–1974; Archived 2019-08-22 at the Wayback Machine, Barber Associates, December 1975.
• DARPA Technical Accomplishments: 1958–1990; 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.
• Belfiore, Michael (2009). The Department of Mad Scientists: How DARPA Is Remaking Our World, from the Internet to Artificial Limbs. 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.)
• Castell, Manuel, The Network Society: A Cross-cultural Perspective, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, Cheltenham, UK, 2004.
• Jacobsen, Annie (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.
• Norberg, Arthur Lawrence; O'Neill, Judy Elizabeth; Freedman, Kerry J. (1996). Transforming Computer Technology: Information Processing for the Pentagon, 1962–1986. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-5152-0.
• Sargent, John F. Jr. (February 21, 2018). Defense Science and Technology Funding (PDF). Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 5, 2018. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
• Sedgwick, John (August 1991). "The Men from DARPA". Playboy. Vol. 3, no. 8. pp. 108–109, 122, 154–156.
• Weinberger, Sharon, The Imagineers of War: The Untold Story of DARPA, the Pentagon Agency that Changed the World, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2017, ISBN 9780385351799.

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