catflap.org Online Dictionary Query

  Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
       
           (DARPA, ARPA) An agency of the US Department of Defense
          responsible for the development of new technology for use by
          the military.  DARPA was established in 1958 in response to
          the Soviet launching of Sputnik, with the mission of keeping
          the US's military technology ahead of its enemies.  DARPA is
          independent from other more conventional military R&D and
          reports directly to senior DoD management.  DARPA has around
          240 personnel (about 140 technical) directly managing a $2
          billion budget.  These figures are "on average" since DARPA
          focusses on short (two to four-year) projects run by small,
          purpose-built teams.
       
          ARPA was its original name, then it was renamed DARPA (for
          Defense) in 1972, then back to ARPA [When?], and then,
          incredibly, back to DARPA again on 1996-03-11!
       
          ARPA was responsible for funding development of ARPANET
          (which grew into the Internet), as well as the Berkeley
          version of Unix and TCP/IP.
       
          http://www.darpa.mil/)" rel="nofollow">Home (http://www.darpa.mil/).
       
          http://www.foldoc.org/pub/darpa)" rel="nofollow">History (http://www.foldoc.org/pub/darpa).
       
          (1999-07-17)