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Reflections from Former Directors

REFLECTIONS from former directors

“DARPA is a place of doing. It is a place where vision is paired with execution, where doing is as powerful a force as thinking, and where it is commonplace for something once deemed impossible to become improbable and then eventually inevitable.”

– Dr. Regina Dugan

“The thing that DARPA does, and DARPA does well, is show that something can be done… And once you show somebody it can be done, it’s amazing how many people suddenly are brave enough to go and try it.”

– Dr. Tony Tether

“DARPA is as true to its founding mission today as it was in 1958. The DARPA brand is an icon for technological innovation, entrepreneurial spirit, and creative solutions to national defense needs.”

– Dr. Raymond Colladay

Early in the summer of this year, DARPA’s Experimental Spaceplane advanced toward its goal for rapid turnaround and on-demand launch with the completion of a rigorous series of 10 engine firings in 10 days for the spaceplane’s main RS-25 engine.

“DARPA is an expression of the quintessence of America. A place where individuals reach beyond their grasp, and where the only failure is small dreams. A home for those who yearn to expand the frontier of the possible. An enterprise imbued with an abiding belief that tomorrow can be better than today, if we make it so.”

– Dr. Arati Prabhakar

“There has never been a better mechanism for accelerating the development of technology than DARPA. Why? A culture of acceptance of risk and failure in pursuit of great achievement. DARPA technology staff are irrepressible and compulsive – ‘the best and the brightest’ – and DARPA management staff are intent on removing barriers, not erecting barriers to getting things done … DARPA accelerates time, DARPA brings the future faster. It makes things happen that would otherwise take years, a decade, perhaps two decades.”

– Dr. Craig Fields

“The people that I managed and worked with at DARPA were some of the brightest and most motivated people I ever had the pleasure to work with. The interactions with program managers were extremely lively as most had great ideas and most thought I had a bucket of money under my desk. Some had outrageous ideas but were passionate about them. DARPA, in my opinion, is a national treasure and is absolutely essential to maintaining our technology edge in military capabilities.”

– Dr. Gary Denman

“DARPA was unique in its exposure to hard, important national technical problems, in its freedom from military intervention, and most importantly in its exceptional and dedicated technical and support staff. We were not bound by short term requirements but were instead allowed to work on a number of ‘what if’ problems, some of which materialized in the future when we went to war against terrorists all over the world.”

– Dr. Fernando “Frank” Fernandez

“ARPA played roles in numerous conflicts. We worked with the Air Force on strategic offense and with the Army in strategic defense. We added programs in naval technology to ensure the survivability of our sea-based forces and devoted attention to working with Combatant Commands and the Intelligence Community.”

– Dr. Stephen Lukasik

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