Agency

For more than fifty years, DARPA has held to a singular and enduring mission: to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security.

By design, people at DARPA tend to have short tenures. While program managers, office directors, deputy office directors, directors and deputy directors number around 120 in any given year, the total number of people who have done a 3- to 5-year turn at DARPA is large. The DARPA family extends to the even larger number of administrative professionals and contractors who support DARPA’s mission. The vast majority of these alumni refer to their tenure at DARPA as an enormously enriching and life-changing experience, so it is no surprise that many continue to care about and support DARPA’s mission years after they leave.

DARPA's FY2016 enacted budget is $2.87 billion. The President's FY2017 budget request for DARPA is $2.97 billion.

Click here to see budget-related Congressional testimony by DARPA leadership. The Defense Department also maintains a searchable database for budget information: http://www.dtic.mil/dodinvestment

The mission of the Legislative Affairs (LA) Office is to facilitate a cooperative and productive relationship between DARPA and Congress. With backgrounds in defense policy and governmental affairs, our staff supports DARPA leadership and program managers by coordinating budgetary and programmatic briefings as well as congressional testimony.

For more than fifty years, DARPA has held to a singular and enduring mission: to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security.