Technology and the military: DOD's Darpa at 25

When, last March 22, President Reagan called for a stepped-up effort to develop advanced weapons to defend against nuclear missiles, he was talking about programs the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) was pursuing. Two weeks later, when the Department of Defense disclosed a new attempt to build an advanced supercomputer to match a government-backed program in Japan, the spotlight was again on Darpa.