Friday, March 27, 2015

DARPA Aiming for More Agility on Future Tech

DARPA Aiming for More Agility on Future Tech: Biotechnology, undersea systems and big data are among the areas that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has identified as key to moving America's technology forward, according to a new report released today.

The agency's bi-annual "Breakthrough Technologies for National Security" report acts as an analysis of recent DARPA work and a guide for what areas the agency expects to invest in over the coming years.

Timed to coincide with today's testimony on the Hill by DARPA director Arati Prabhakar, the report concludes that while the US remains a leader in many technological areas, other nations continue to close that gap. Not helping that situation is the simple truth that the US has been forced to focus on the situation in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last decade.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Prabhakar pointed to things like the Defense Innovation Initiative, more commonly known as the "third offset," as a result of the Pentagon working to quickly take stock in a changed world.