Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Exploitation

The collection and analysis of information on massive scales has clear benefits for society: it can help businesses optimize online commerce, medical workers address public health issues and governments interrupt terrorist activities. Yet at the same time, respect for privacy is a cornerstone principle of our democracy. The right to privacy, as Louis Brandeis first expounded in 1890, is a consequence of modernity because we better understand that harm comes in more ways than just the physical.

How can society responsibly reap the benefits of big data while protecting individual privacy?

Modern society depends on information and information depends on information systems. Timely, insightful, reliable, and relevant information drives success. This is not lost on military leaders who well appreciate the critical importance of information for national security. As Sir Francis Bacon wrote in 1597, “Knowledge is power.”

DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office (STO) is focused on technologies that enable fighting as a network to increase military effectiveness, cost leverage, and adaptability. STO's areas of interest include: Battle Management, Command and Control; Communications and Networks; Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance; Electronic Warfare; Positioning, Navigation, and Timing; and Foundational Strategic Technologies and Systems.

The mission of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office (TTO) is to provide or prevent strategic and tactical surprise with very high-payoff, high-risk development and demonstration of revolutionary new platforms in Ground Systems, Maritime (Surface and Undersea) Systems, Air Systems, and Space Systems.