Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, more commonly known by its acronym, DARPA, was founded in 1958 as the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). The name has switched back and forth several times. ARPA was initially created to oversee and coordinate the separate rocketry programs of the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force. DARPA has since become a mid- to long-range research and development (R&D) establishment for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), focusing on research projects with a high risk of failure, but a high return when successful. Because of the nature of the research undertaken by DARPA, successful results are not necessarily limited to military uses and can lead to “spin-offs” (alternative uses of knowledge or technology other than those intended by the initial researchers) in the civilian world. The most famous of these spin-offs is the Internet, but there have been others whose effects are less obvious and less well known. While DARPA's mission has changed over time, its basic focus as an R&D management agency has remained.

When the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into orbit on October 4, 1957, the American public demanded an immediate national response. U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower was not worried about Sputnik because he had access to secret information about both Soviet and U.S. efforts to launch a satellite. Nonetheless, public opinion forced his administration to act quickly. After consultation with the president and his science advisers, the new secretary of defense, Neil H. McElroy, announced the creation of the Advanced Projects Research Agency to coordinate the missile and rocketry efforts of all the armed services. ARPA was intended to eliminate problems and inefficiencies caused by interservice rivalries. After its official establishment in January 1958 under the secretary of defense, ARPA was immediately given responsibility for all U.S. space programs and advanced strategic missile research. The role of the agency itself, however, was largely managerial—the actual research and development for these programs continued to be carried out by the various armed services and selected civilian firms.

[Page 216]Not long after its creation, ARPA faced a challenge. When the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) began operation in October of 1958, Eisenhower transferred responsibility for all nonmilitary—and some military—space programs from ARPA to NASA. Responsibility for many of the remaining programs was returned to the individual services. This left ARPA an organization without a mission. Its very flat organizational structure (very few managers between the project directors and the head of the agency) with a lot of flexibility compared to other DoD research agencies was an asset when ARPA reorganized around a new idea: to sponsor and manage R&D into the kinds of ideas that were important to the Department of Defense but too undeveloped to be taken up directly by one of the armed services research labs.

This new, flexible, and agile ARPA would be strongly influenced by its leadership. Its third director, Jack P. Ruina, helped establish the agency's lasting character. Ruina came to ARPA in 1961 on leave from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was the first scientist to lead the organization. (ARPA's first director had come from the business world; its second director was a military man.) During his time at ARPA, Ruina established a very hands-off management style. He believed in hiring the best people to pursue the best technology and letting them do what needed to be done without his interference. He also recognized that the top people in industry and academia were not likely to stick around long, so he turned this into an advantage: new people meant new ideas, and new project managers were free to continue, redirect, or end the projects of the previous manager. The agency's culture of change and flexibility has persisted and may be seen in the variety of projects it sponsors.

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