The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is the Pentagon’s secretive research arm. Over the past 60 years, DARPA has helped lead the development of stealth aircraft, GPS and even the internet.
As the U.S. increasingly focuses on near-peer competition with Russia and China, DARPA is continuing its mission to create breakthrough technology for national security.
Director Steven Walker discussed DARPA’s future at the Washington Post’s Transformers series in December. Here are 5 revolutionary technologies DARPA is currently developing:
Hypersonic Weapons Defense
China and Russia have showed off hypersonic weapons that can fly five times the speed of sound, sparking fears that the U.S. is behind in the standoff technology.
But Walker said that the U.S. still the leader “in some areas.” DARPA is helping the U.S. beef up defenses against the fast and unpredictable hypersonic weapons.
“If you’re going to defend against something like that you’ve got to see it,” Walker said. “You’ve got to be able to sense it. That may require some improvements in our sensing capability, which we are focused on now with our work looking at how do you use space architecture.”
DARPA is working on a space-based early warning missile defense system to counter hypersonic weapons. But the agency is also looking at the offensive side.
DARPA’s Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) weapon would involve a rocket that hits Mach 5 or above. Then the payload would separate from the rocket and “glide” at hypersonic speed to its target.
Lockheed Martin (LMT) and Raytheon (RTN) are working on the TBG program with DARPA and are expected to have a prototype by 2022 or 2023. The Air Force plans to test the vehicle on Boeing (BA) B-52s.
DARPA and Lockheed are also working on a separate hypersonic weapon, the Hypersonic Air-Breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC).
Artificial Intelligence With Less Data
Artificial intelligence is making the headlines with Apple (AAPL), Facebook (FB) and Microsoft (MSFT) using the technology in the private sector.
Machines need a lot of data to learn from to make this AI possible. China mines data from its citizens, leaving the U.S., with its strict privacy laws at a disadvantage.
But Walker said that while the data advantage might help Beijing in the near term, DARPA is working on developing AI without a horde of data.
We have a program “called Learning with Less Labels,” Walker said. “The military doesn’t have as much data as the commercial sector on what’s going on in the environment. Can we train a machine with less labels, less data?”
But AI isn’t what keeps Walker up at night. Instead it’s biology.
Biology: Gene Editing & Vaccines
“I see it as a real threat, either natural pandemics or man-made,’ he said. “We are focused on biomitigation and sensing technology of all types.”
Currently, it takes at least 18 months to develop a vaccine and get approval in the U.S. But DARPA wants to cut that time down to just 60 days.
The agency is also working on the Prometheus program — to detect as soon as possible when someone is sick, to prevent the spread of disease.
The startling news that a Chinese researcher had used the gene-editing program CRISPR to create two babies that were immune to HIV sparked ethical concerns about the technology and its ability to be used as a weapon.
Two years ago DARPA started its Safe Genes program to study how the CRIPSR process works and to turn off or reverse edits if “something got out of control or it was used for nefarious purposes,” Walker said. “Technologies can be used for good or evil.”
Laser Weapons
Dr. Evil wanted sharks with laser beams in “Austin Powers.” The U.S. military wants lasers for far more conventional weapons.
“I’ve never met a four-star general that didn’t want a laser on his airplane,” Walker said. “It would be really neat.”
But fuel and cooling mechanisms make laser weapons heavy. Wilson said the U.S. is close to having ship-based lasers with ground-based laser weapons next.
“Airplanes will probably be the last sort of application for it.”
To lighten the load for airplanes, Walker said that DARPA is investing in solid-state laser technology that would bundle small one- to two-kilowatt lasers together to produce a higher powered laser.
Battling Fake News
Fake news took center stage during the 2016 presidential election. Media watchers are concerned about the proliferation of fake photos and videos that people won’t be able to tell are altered.
In 2014, DARPA started its Metaphor program to develop tools to determine if a picture or video had been tampered with and help an analyst pinpoint exactly where the changes were made.
