The Pentagon's Brain (47 page)

In 1965, the Jason scientists studied the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Vietnam to close off supply routes on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. (U.S. Army)

The Jason scientists were the brains behind McNamara’s electronic fence, a system of advanced sensors designed to detect Viet Cong trail traffic. Initially ridiculed and later embraced, DARPA advanced the concept into Combat Zones That See. In this photo, an Air Delivered Seismic Intrusion Detector (ADSID) sensor is about to be dropped on the trail, near Khe Sanh. (U.S. Air Force)

No amount of technology could stop Vietnam War protesters from gaining control of the war narrative. (Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, photo by Frank Wolfe)

As the seventeenth secretary of defense Richard “Dick” B. Cheney oversaw the Gulf War in Iraq, which put decades of DARPA’s advanced weapons technology on display. (Office of the Secretary of Defense)

Students train in an M1 Abrams tank SIMNET simulator, the brainchild of DARPA’s Jack Thorpe. (U.S. Department of Defense)

A staff sergeant armed with an M16A2 assault rifle maintains security over an F-117 stealth fighter, during refueling. (U.S. Department of Defense)

The superiority of U.S. weapons technology used in the Gulf War is made evident along Iraq’s Highway 80, or “Highway of Death.” (U.S. Department of Defense, Tech Sgt. Joe Coleman)

A U.S. Marine helicopter flies over a residential area in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1992. The following year, the Battle of Mogadishu caused DARPA to rethink what future weapons systems would be needed for urban combat. (U.S. Department of Defense, Tech Sgt. Perry Heimer)

An early 1990s model of what the Pentagon thought an urban combat scenario might look like, seen here at the Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) training center. But combat zones like Mogadishu, Fallujah, and Kabul look nothing like this. (U.S. Department of Defense, Visual Information Center)

Retired Vice Admiral John M. Poindexter, known for his role in the Iran-Contra affair, served as director of DARPA’s Information Awareness Office, starting in 2001. Allegedly shut down, many electronic surveillance programs were transferred to NSA. (NARA)

President George W. Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at the western face of the Pentagon, the day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. (U.S. Department of Defense, photo by R. D. Ward)

U.S. and coalition flags fly outside Saddam Hussein’s former Al Faw Palace, taken over by U.S. military and renamed Camp Victory, Iraq. Master Sergeant Craig Marsh lived here and oversaw the efforts of bomb disposal (EOD) technicians and DARPA robots. (U.S. Department of Defense, photo by Staff Sgt. Caleb Barrieau)