ARPA, the Advanced Research Projects Agency, is an organization established by President Roosevelt for the express purpose of investigating and pursuing any arena of scientific research that might benefit the national security of the United States. The organization’s original function was to co-ordinate government funded research projects, thereby increasing both efficiency and progress. Since the US entry into the war, however, ARPA has been forced into several roles far different from its bureaucratic beginnings.

            In 1946, all research and experimentation that might be of benefit to the war effort is closely controlled by ARPA. From relatively innocuous and mundane advances such as innovations to improve assembly line efficiency or methods to better preserve perishable foods, to incredible new weapons destined to change the face of warfare and extraordinary theoretical sciences that push the very boundaries of human knowledge, ARPA has a hand in it all. The agency is tasked with maintaining the finest minds in the United States and with ensuring that what is developed in America stays in American hands.