English subtitles for clip: File:02 - The Cold War Era 1975 - 1989 (DARPA history).ogv

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[ Music ]

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>> DARPA-- shaping the feature,
creating opportunities

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for new capabilities strategically, tactically.

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The mid-70's, the arms race was
intensifying, technology was changing warfare.

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Advances in Soviet radar, anti-aircraft

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and missile technologies were
challenging American airpower.

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The director, Dr. George
Heilmeier [assumed spelling].

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>> Vietnam was still with us, although
tapering down to a certain extent

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and people were concerned about air warfare,
particularly the surface to air missile threat

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and at that time the Soviet Union had
a very, very large submarine in force

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and so any submarine warfare was another
critical need of the Pentagon at the time.

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>> Responding to those threats, Dr.
Heilmeier took DARPA in a new direction,

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building experimental prototypes to test
and prove the viability of new technologies.

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In 1975, he presented six major thrust
areas to Defense Secretary James Slussinger;

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one stood out-- the invisible airplane.

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It was a radical idea.

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Experiment with aircraft performance
for a very low radar profile.

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>> You know that early morning lift
off of the Hablu [assumed spelling],

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the first self-aircraft which was
demonstrating the principles, that was a very,

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very exciting morning because I thought
to myself you know this small group

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of guys had made aviation history this morning.

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>> In just two years, DARPA had produced an
entirely new airplane invisible to radar.

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Stealth technology was experimented on
the ground and on ships, like sea shadow.

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Advances were also being made with the Arpanet.

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In 1976, the first wireless Arpanet transmission
around the world was made from this van.

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Arpanet was going mobile.

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Dr. Bob Fossom [assumed spelling]
became director in 1977.

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The Soviet Union was still our main adversary.

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>> We perceived of it as a substantial
military threat in conventional forces,

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but the growth of the strategic and theater
nuclear forces was of substantial concern.

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>> Each side was in a technology race,
each trying to outsmart the other.

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The technological advances of the past
20 years were building on themselves.

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Soviet submarines and missiles
were becoming more sophisticated;

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new technologies were developing
at a faster and faster pace.

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Dr. Fossom had to make room for new ideas.

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>> I divided the square into four quadrants.

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And in the first quadrant I had existing
missions and existing technology.

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I tended to reject that.

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The second category was a very interesting one.

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Can we find new missions
for existing technology?

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The third category is existing missions
with brand new revolutionary technology.

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But it's that four area, brand new
missions, things we've never done before

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and new technology to do those missions.

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I used to like to walk around and talk

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with people while there were some contractors
sitting there, wild-eyed contractors.

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And so they saw me and their eyes lit up
and they said, "Dr. Fossom how would you

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like an airplane that flew
for 24 hours at 50,000 feet?"

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And I said, "Make it a week and 70,000 feet
and I'll buy one; and that was the beginning

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of a program called Hale-- high altitude long
endurance out of which Global Hawk emerged.

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[ Music ]

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>> A change in administrations brought changes
in defense policy and changes to DARPA.

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One of Ronald Reagan's major initiatives
managed to eliminate the Soviet threat.

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The United States began a vicious defense
build-up; new DARPA director, Dr. Bob Cooper.

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>> There was an intention from
the beginning to spend enough

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on building the equipment that our forces had.

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That it would require the Soviet Union to
spend with us if they wanted to stay with us;

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and it was the intention from the beginning
to try to bankrupt the Soviet Union.

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>> What if free people could
live secure the knowledge

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that their security did not rest upon the threat
of U.S. retaliation to deter a Soviet attack;

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that we could intercept and destroy strategic
ballistic missiles before they reached our own

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soil or that of our allies.

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>> And we went after ballistic missile defense;

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we went after new ballistic missiles
offense systems; we did a variety of things

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with conventional weaponry making conventional
weapons much more legal by accompanying them

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with intelligence, surveillance, recognizance,
and precision-guided emissions and things

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of that sort which frightened the
Soviet military hierarchy tremendously.

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>> DARPA's science and technology
established the foundation

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for the strategic defense initiative.

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STI, Star Wars and the beginning

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of a new capability combining
information with precision weapons.

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>> And so we drove the Soviet Union into
bankruptcy basically, making them continue

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to spend more and more of their
gross national product on defense;

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and I think that finally they just
realized what they were doing and they...