The short tenure of DARPA technical staff (Program Managers, Deputy Program Managers, Office Directors, Deputy Office Directors, Directors and Deputy Directors), means that even though the technical staff numbers at around 120 any given year, the number of Scientists and Engineers who have done a 3-5 year turn at DARPA, is a generous and well-placed group. The majority of the DARPA alumni consider their tenure at DARPA a life-changing experience. More
DARPA is the principal agency within the Department of Defense for high-risk, high-payoff research, development and demonstration of new technologies and systems that serve the warfighter and the Nation’s defense. DARPA’s core mission is to prevent and create technological strategic surprise for the United States. The Agency has a rich 50-year history of successes ranging from the Internet to GPS, stealth, and UAVs, but these advances, now ubiquitous, were once the source of discomfort and unease. Such is the nature of work performed at the Agency. Many of the now ubiquitous technologies pioneered at DARPA were once considered impossibilities. And this progression—first impossible, then improbable, eventually inevitable—characterizes many of the Agency’s most important advances. We take on new, seemingly impossible challenges each year. In so doing, there is often a tension between novel concepts and an underdeveloped ethical, legal, and societal framework for addressing the full implications of such research. This is a problem not unique to DARPA. Other agencies have faced it, such as NIH, during the Human Genome Project. If we do our research well, we will necessarily bump up against these concerns. Our responsibility to the defense of the Nation is such that we must thoughtfully address these issues, while simultaneously pursuing our work. We expect it of ourselves. And sound leadership demands it. More