The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was established in 1958 as the first U.S. response to the Soviet launching of Sputnik. Since that time DARPA's mission has been to assure that the U.S. maintains a lead in applying state-of-the-art technology for military capabilities and to prevent technological surprise from her adversaries. The DARPA organization was as unique as its role, reporting directly to the Secretary of Defense and operating in coordination with, but completely independent of, the military research and development (R&D) establishment. Strong support from the senior DoD management has always been essential since DARPA was designed to be an anathema to the conventional military and R&D structure and, in fact, to be a deliberate counterpoint to traditional thinking and approaches.

Some of the more important founding characteristics are listed below. Over the years, DARPA has continued to adhere to these founding principles:

• Small and flexible;
  

• Flat organization;
  

• Substantial autonomy and freedom from bureaucratic impediments;
  

• Technical staff drawn from world-class scientists and engineers with representation from industry, universities, government laboratories and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers;
  

• Technical staff assigned for 3-5 years and rotated to assure fresh thinking and perspectives;
  

• Project based -- all efforts typically 3-5 years long with strong focus on end-goals. Major technological challenges may be addressed over much longer times but only as a series of focused steps. The end of each project is the end. It may be that another project is started in the same technical area, perhaps with the same program manager and, to the outside world, this may be seen as a simple extension. For DARPA, though, it is a conscious weighing of the current opportunity and a completely fresh decision. The fact of prior investment is irrelevant;
  

• Necessary supporting personnel (technical, contracting, administrative) are "hired" on a temporary basis to provide complete flexibility to get into and out of an area without the problems of sustaining the staff. This is by agreement with Defense or other governmental organizations (military R&D groups, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, etc.) and from System Engineering and Technical Assistance (SETA) contractors;
  

• Program Managers (the heart of DARPA) are selected to be technically outstanding and entrepreneurial. The best DARPA Program Managers have always been freewheeling zealots in pursuit of their goals;
  

• Management is focused on good stewardship of taxpayer funds but imposes little else in terms of rules. Management's job is to enable the Program Managers;
  

• A complete acceptance of failure if the payoff of success was high enough.
  

The Agency looks very similar today. The principal exception is its reporting chain -- whereas initially DARPA reported to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary, it later came under the Under Secretary of Defense (Research and Engineering) (current equivalent is Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition and Technology)) and more recently under the Director for Defense Research and Engineering.

Other than the reporting chain, there have been only minor changes in approach. Each Director recognized the wisdom of the agency's historical approach and defended the organization from outside influences that would constrain its freedom and flexibility. In addition, the Department of Defense's senior management, seeing the value of an agile, forward-looking R&D group unconstrained by conventional thinking and able to investigate ideas and approaches that the traditional R&D community finds too outlandish or risky, has consistently protected the independence of DARPA. Failure to keep the bureaucracy at bay would have doomed the value of DARPA and this has been consistently recognized over the years.

The freedom to act quickly and decisively with high-quality people has paid handsome dividends for DoD in terms of revolutionary military capabilities.

Today, DARPA is an organization of 240 personnel (approximately 140 of which are technical) directly managing a budget of about $2 billion. A typical technical project might be structured as follows:

• $10-40 million over 4 years;
  

• Single DARPA Program Manager with direct control of the efforts and the funding;
  

• A SETA contractor or contractors to support the Program Manager in his or her primary roles of managing the efforts and representing the program with Congress, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the military Services and/or involved Unified Commander;
  

• An Agent (furnishing from a fraction of a person to several people) in a military R&D laboratory to provide technical and contracting support (paid from program funds to provide this support);
  

• Five to 10 contractor organizations and two universities executing tasks focused on a specific aggregate goal.
  

Obviously, there are wide variations to this "typical" case. Some projects are under $1 million and a few are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. However, the management paradigm is the same; the variation is in the amount and type of "hired" assistance. Even in larger programs, the emphasis is on small teams of the highest quality people. Regardless of size, a single DARPA Program Manager is in charge and must manage and represent the project internally and externally.

DARPA's original operating philosophy has changed over the years in only three ways -- its relationships with the commercial marketplace, its business practices, and its emphasis on joint systems.

First, the DoD has gone from dominating the market in such areas as microelectronics, computing and network communications, each of which was driven by DARPA in past years, to the current situation where the DoD is able to somewhat influence the directions of a much-larger-than-DoD market. DARPA has played one of the key roles in assuring that DoD's long-term interests are served in this new situation.

Second, in the past decade, DARPA has pioneered revolutionary R&D business practices reform. With the support of the Congress and DoD senior management, DARPA has led the way in adopting commercial practices and innovative contracting arrangements. Congress provided the authority for "Other Transactions" and "Section 845" agreements to DARPA on an experimental basis, and, because of DARPA's success, has now conveyed the same authorities to the rest of DoD.

Third, since the Goldwater-Nicholls Act, DARPA has focused considerable attention on solutions to joint-Service systems and problems. 

In summary, DARPA's ability to adapt rapidly to changing environments and to seek and embrace opportunities in both technology and in processes, while maintaining the historically proven principles of the Agency, makes DARPA the crown jewel in Defense R&D and a unique R&D organization in the world.


Last Updated: October 27, 2003