Arati Prabhakar, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, said the high cost of building military weapons has forced the agency to explore new technology development methods, Defense News reported Saturday.
Marcus Weisgerber writes that Prabhakar said DARPA is also seeking alternative approaches to develop navigation, radar, communications and space systems.
“Today, what we’re seeing is a degree of cost and inflexibility in our major platform systems that I believe is going to make them ineffective for the challenges we face in the future,†she told audience at an Atlantic Council forum Wednesday.
Prabhakar has also observed that developers are looking toward the agency instead of pursuing incremental system upgrades.
“Usually budget pressure translates to incrementalism for [research and development] because people say what have you done for me lately — solve today’s problems,” she added, according to Defense News.
Prabhakar overviewed the agency’s evolving space requirements at a conference hosted by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in January.
