Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA)

The Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) is the central research and development organization of the defense department of the United States. This agency, also known by the name DARPA, was established in the year 1958. Primarily committed to the introduction and development of new technology in the military, ARPA's main aim is to maintain and protect the technological superiority of the US. This agency is also in charge of the funding of many projects including computer networking, and other related technologies that are crucial for establishing military superiority.

ARPA focuses mainly on nine strategic plans. They are urban area operations, robust and secure networks, bio- revolution, space, core technologies, detection, characterization and assessment of underground structures, advanced manned and unmanned systems, increasing the tooth to tail ratio and detection, tracking and destruction of subtle targets.

ARPA itself owns an Internet top level domain .arpa which is administered by IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) in association with Internet technical community under the steering of the Internet Architecture Board.

ARPA developed the advanced research project agency network known as ARPANET which is the world's first operational web. It is the predecessor of today's Internet. ARPANET is a packet switching network for both voice and data communication used globally. It also introduced high productivity computer systems (HPCS) programs to help in the development of next generation supercomputers for research and natural security.

ARPA has a number of research projects under networking and distributed systems, intelligent software and also in embedded and autonomous systems. One of ARPA's main projects is the Control of Agent Based systems which are better known as CoABS. ARPA has two technical offices, namely technology offices and system offices. The technology offices concentrate on new knowledge and component technologies that are primarily concerned with the natural security applications. The system offices on the other hand, concentrate on programs concerning technological development. ARPA also hosts the J-UCAS or the Joint Unmanned Combat Air systems Office which is focused on developing unmanned combat air vehicles for the defense department.