DARPA was created in 1958 as the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Its purpose was to formulate and execute research and development projects to expand the frontiers of technology and science, with the aim to reach beyond immediate military requirements.[3] The administration was responding to the Soviet launching of Sputnik 1 in 1957, and DARPAs mission was to ensure U.S. military technology be more sophisticated than that of the nations potential enemies.
ARPA was renamed to DARPA in March 1972, then renamed ARPA in February 1993, and then renamed DARPA again in March 1996.
DARPA is independent from other military research and development and reports directly to senior Department of Defense management. DARPA has ca. 240 personnel (13 in management, close to 140 technical) directly managing a $3 billion budget. These figures are on average since DARPA focuses on short-term (two to four year) projects run by small, purpose-built teams.
DARPA funded projects have provided significant technologies that influenced many non-military fields, such as computer networking and graphical user interfaces in information technology.