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JSTARS

In the mid-1970s, DARPA and the U.S. Air Force jointly developed an airborne target-acquisition and weapon-delivery radar program, Pave Mover, under the Agency’s Assault Breaker program. The Pave Mover system relied on even earlier DARPA-sponsored research into moving target indication (MTI) radar for detecting slowly moving targets. As the program progressed, researchers added a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to analyze areas for which the MTI radar could not detect a moving target, as well as capabilities for detecting helicopters and even rotating antennas.

MOSIS Semiconductor Service

To hasten development in the microelectronics arena of very large-scale integration (VLSI), DARPA funded Metal Oxide Silicon Implementation Service, or MOSIS. The service provided a fast-turnaround (four to ten weeks), low-cost ability to run limited batches of custom and semicustom microelectronic devices. By decoupling researchers from the need to have direct access to fabrication facilities and to negotiate the complexities of producing microelectronic chips, MOSIS opened innovation in this space to players who otherwise might have been precluded.

No-Tail-Rotor Helicopter

In the early 1980s, DARPA nurtured the development of no-tail-rotor (NOTAR) technologies, resulting in significantly quieter helicopters that could operate with a lower chance of detection. DARPAs support helped to show the operational advantages of the NOTAR flying demonstrator led to a NOTAR series of helicopters used by government agencies and the commercial sector. The NOTAR system was considered to be the first successful fundamental configuration change to the single-rotor helicopter since the incorporation of the turbine engine in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Tacit Blue

DARPA embarked on the pathbreaking research and development that would lead to stealth technology in the 1970s. A milestone in that R&D trajectory was the production of two demonstrator aircraft by Lockheed in what was called the HAVE BLUE program. This resulted in the first practical combat stealth aircraft, which made its first test flight by the end of 1977. A year later, the company received a contract to scale-up engineering development of what become the F-117 and which became operational in October 1983.

Miniaturized GPS Receivers

With roots extending to the DARPA-supported Transit program—a Navy submarine-geopositioning system originating in the earliest years of the Space Age at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory—what became today’s world-changing GPS technology began to take modern form in 1973. That is when the Department of Defense called for the creation of a joint program office to develop the NAVSTAR Global Positioning System.

Sea Shadow

Drawing inspiration from his work on the F-117 stealth aircraft, Ben Rich, then head of Lockheed’s Skunk Works, proposed applying the technology concepts he and his colleagues had learned for aircraft to submarines, with the idea of making these vessels undetectable via sonar. Initial tests on a small model suggested the stealth gains could be on the order of a thousandfold, albeit with a cost of speed due to the design.

GLOMR Satellite

The goal of the Global Low Orbiting Message Relay (GLOMR) satellite (aka CHEAPSAT) program was to demonstrate the feasibility of building a two-way, digital data communication satellite capable of performing important military missions for less than a million dollars in under a year. The broader objective was to demonstrate low-cost satellite construction technology that could pave the way for future satellites performing diverse missions.

X-29

The December 14, 1984, test flight of the X-29—the most aerodynamically unstable aircraft ever built—demonstrated forward-swept wing technology for supersonic fighter aircraft for the first time. Technology breakthroughs, among them a digital fly-by-wire flight-control system and carbon-fiber wing technology, made possible a lightweight design far more maneuverable than conventional aircraft. DARPA, NASA, and the U.S. Air Force jointly developed two X-29 technology demonstration aircraft, which the Air Force acquired in March 1985 and used for 279 test flights by April 1990.

SEMATECH

Beginning in 1987, the SEMATECH consortium received funding from the Federal Government to help revitalize the U.S. chipmaking industry. SEMATECH is an acronym that derives from Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology A decade after its founding, in 1997, the consortium was standing on its own without annual funding from the Government. It has since spawned other organizations, such as the International Semiconductor Manufacturing Initiative with a focus on manufacturing equipment and operations.

MIMIC

The Microwave and Millimeter Wave Integrated Circuit (MIMIC) program’s objective was, according to a review by one of its program managers, "to develop microwave/millimeter-wave subsystems for use in military weapon system "front ends" that are affordable, available, and broadly applicable.” The program catalyzed multi-faceted research in materials (gallium arsenide), device design, integration, defect management, manufacturing, and other areas.

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