May 21, 2014 · by Fortuna's Corner
Four DARPA Projects That Could Be Bigger Than The Internet
Patrick Tucker’s DefenseOne.com, had an online article yesterday, May 20, 2014 with the title above. Mr. Tucker began by noting that “forty years ago, a group researchers with military money, set out to test the wacky idea of making computers talk to one another in a new way — using digital information packets that could be traded among multiple machines; rather than telephonic, point-to-point circuit relays. The project called ARPANET, went on to fundamentally change life on Earth, under its more common name — the Internet.”
“Today,” he writes, “the agency that bankrolled the Internet (no it wasn’t Al Gore) is called the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which boasts a rising budget of $3B — split across 250 [known] programs. They all have national security implications but, like the Internet, much of what DARPA funds can be commercialized, spread, and potentially change civilian life in big ways that its originators didn’t conceive of,” at the time.
“What is DARPA [currently] working on that could be as big as the Internet?,” asks Mr. Tucker. “Last week,” he writes, “at The Atlantic Council, DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar declined to name names, but in her recent Congressional testimony (Senate Appropriations Committee), she highlighted some of her favorites:”
— Atomic GPS: The Global Positioning System, or GPS, which DARPA had an important but limited role in developing, is a great tool — but, maintaining it as a satellite system is increasingly costly. A modern GPS satellite can run into the range of $223M, which is one reason why the USAF recently scaled back its procurement.” “DARPA doesn’t have an explicit program to replace GPS,” notes Mr. Tucker, “but the DARPA-funded-chip-scale combinatorial atomic navigation, or C-Scan, and Quantum Assisted Sensing, or QuASAR, initiatives explore a field of research with big relevance here; the use of atomic physics for much better sensing. If you can measure or understand how the Earth’s magnetic field acceleration and position is effecting individual atoms (reduced in temperature), you can navigate without a satellite. In fact, you can achieve geo-location awareness that could be 1000X more accurate than any system in existence, say researchers.”
“The British military is investing millions of pounds in a similar technology,” writes Mr. Tucker. “Researchers associated with the project forecast they will have a prototype ready within five years. The upshot from quantum navigation for any military is obvious. It arms them with better and more reliable situational awareness for soldiers and equipment and better flying for missiles. Perhaps, more importantly,” Mr. Tucker adds, “a drone with a quantum compass wouldn’t require satellite navigation, which would make it easier to fly and less [susceptible] to hacking.”
“The big benefit for everybody else? asks Mr. Tucker. “Future devices that understand where they are in relation to one another, and their physical world won’t need to rely on an expensive satellite infrastructure to work. That means having more capable and cheaper devices, with geo-location capability, have the potential to improve everything from real-time, location-based searches to self-driving cars, and those anticipated pizza delivery drones.”
“The most important civilian use for quantum GPS could be privacy,” notes Mr. Tucker. “Your phone won’t have to get signals from space anymore — to tell you where you are. It would know with atomic certainty. That could make your phone less hackable, and, perhaps, allow you to keep more information out of the hands of your carrier and the NSA.”
Terehertz Frequency Electronics And Meta-Materials
“The area of electromagnetic spectrum between microwave, which we all use for cell phones,” writes Mr. Tucker. “and infrared, is the Terehertz Range (THz).” “Today it is a ghost town,” says Mr. Tucker, “but, if scientists can figure out how to harness it, we could open up a vast frontier of devices that don’t compete against others for spectrum access. That would be a strategic advantage in a time when more military devices use the same electromagnetic spectrum space. Research into THz electronics has applications in construction of so-called meta-materials, which would lend themselves to use in cloaking for jets and equipment — perhaps even invisibility. On the civilian side, because of THz radiation, unlike X-ray radiation, in non-invasive, meta-material smart clothes made with small THz sensors would allow for faster and more precise detection of chemical changes in the body, which could indicate changes in health states. There’s the future doctor in your pocket,” he notes.
A Virus-Shield For The Internet Of Things
CISCO Systems has forecast 50B interconnected devices will inhabit the world by the year 2020, or everything from appliances, to streets, to pipes, and utilities through supervisory command and control systems. All of that physical and digital interconnection is now known as The Internet of Things (IoT).
Mr. Tucker writes that “the High Assurance Cyber Military Systems program or HACMS, which DARPA announced in 2012, is trying to patch the security vulnerabilities that could pervade the IoT. DARPA wants to make sure that military vehicles, medical equipment and yes, even drones can’t be hacked into from the outside. In the future, some of the software tools that emerge from HACMS program could be what keeps the civilian IoT operating safely. This breakthrough won’t be as conspicuous as the Internet itself,” Mr. Tucker contends, but, “you will know its influence by what does not happen because of it — namely, a deadly industrial accident resulting from a catastrophic cyber-security breach (i.e., Stuxnet).”
“Without better [cyber] security, many experts believe the IoT will never reach it’s full potential. “Barriers to the IoT include failure to achieve sufficient standardization and security,” said Internet pioneer Vincent Cerf, who was instrumental in the success of ARPANET. HCAMS could provide the seeds for future security protocols, allowing the IoT to get off the ground,” according to Mr. Tucker.
Rapid Threat Assessment
“The Rapid Threat Assessment (RTA) Program, wants to speed up by orders of magnitude — how quickly researchers can figure out how diseases, or agents work to kill humans. Instead of months, or years, DARPA wants to enable researchers to “within 30 days of exposure to a human cell, map the complete molecular mechanism through which a threat agent alters cellular processes,” DARPA Director Prabhakar said in her Congressional testimony.’ “This would give researchers the framework with which to develop medical countermeasures and mitigate threats.”
“How is that useful now?” Mr. Tucker asks. “In the short-term, this is another research area notable primarily for what doesn’t happen after it hits, namely paramedics. It took years and a lot of money to figure out that H5N1 bird flu became more contagious with the presence of an amino acid — in a specific position. That’s what enabled it to live in mammalian lungs and, thus, be potentially spread by humans via coughing or sneezing. Knowing this secret earlier would have prevented a great deal of death. In the decades ahead, the biggest contribution of the program may be fundamental changes in future drug discovery.” “If successful, RTA could shift the cost-benefit trade space of using chemical or biological weapons against U.S. forces; and, could also apply to drug development to combat emerging diseases,” Prabhakar said.
“Before any of these four [ideas] reach Internet-level success,” Mr. Tucker concludes, “DARPA faces a big challenge — despite it’s continued popularity, in that they remain a government agency — at a time when change moves faster than the U.S. Government,” can comprehend and/or appreciate.
“We move at a pace measured in decades — in an environment that changes every year,” Prabhakar added in a recent speech to The Atlantic Council. “In terms of emerging technology she’s most concerned about, it is the unknown, unknowns, and the U.S. military’s ability to handle this vast, changing landscape.”
Very interesting and fascinating article. We do indeed live in interesting times; and, as Bob Dillion once sang, “these times, they are a changing.” Interactive, autonomous drones on the battlefield and in intelligence collection — that activate based on target activity; and that go dormant or change like a chameleon when being surveilled, autonomous drones for the first responder community, logistics, etc. is a disruptive domain right now and the way this dynamic plays out is anyone’s guess. Miniature and micro robotics, nanotechnology, “Spocks Tri-Corder,” stealth and cloaking advancements, denial and deception, dog-fighting UAVs and underwater unmanned vehicles, biometrics/identity management, cyber forensics, and the Internet of Things, big-data analytics, etc. are all experiencing their own versions of Moore’s Law. As someone once remarked to me, the past 10yrs., is not a guide to the next 10yrs.; but, more likely the next five. Potential capability surprise and game-changing technology on the battlefield is not just likely; but, certain. Virtual reality, avatar, quantum computing and encryption, over-the-horizon voice recognition, real-time, clandestine/encrypted exfiltration and dissemination of data from the battlefield, exoskeletons and the “super soldier,” are all areas ripe for major tactical and strategic advancements. Strap on your seat belts, this could get interesting. V/R, RCP
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