DARPA

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA for short, is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military, created on February 7, 1958, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in response to the Soviet Union launching it's Sputnik 1 satellite in 1957.
==History==
===Pre-Third World War===
thumb|250px|Paladin's predecessor, The Walker Adaptive Suspension VehicleDARPA started out as ARPA - short for Advanced Research Projects Agency, for the purpose of forming and executing research and development projects to expand the frontiers of technology and science. At first, ARPA worked on various nuclear defense mechanisms, including protection against ballistic missiles and nuclear test detection among others.
During the 1960's the agency was renamed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In the 1980's, DARPA begun their work on a controversial and risky lethal autonomous weapons (LAWS) project. Before that, the peak of US military robotics were the Ryan Model 147 Lightning Bug UAV's that were used for espionage, aerial reconnaissance and surveillance during the 1960's and 1970's. DARPA wanted to go one step beyond, and develop humanoid-shaped walking tanks, that could be armed with large-caliber weaponry. The project was code-named Paladin, and the man leading these achievements was named Miles Dyson. The Paladin took many influences and mechanics from DARPA's previous project, the "Walker" Adaptive Suspension Vehicle. Many of Dyson's fellow men of science pondered, just what exactly is the reason of developing a bipedal walking tank, if the freshly-developed M1 Abrams tanks will do just as well, all the while being less expensive. His scientific reasoning made even the greatest skeptic nod in agreement - "it's cool".
Because of the Paladin at first being developed as a successor to the Walker, the project's code-name at first was Doug Walker, to reflect it's more bipedal stance.
===Third World War===
thumb|250px|Interior of a Paladin, and it's "hand"First prototypes of the Paladin were rather pathetic, and it seemed as if Dyson's pet project was going to be rejected, just when in 1990, the Third World War erupted. When an American operative rescued Shigeru Mishima, the CEO of Mishima Corporation and his design patents from Chinese hands, the Mishima Corporation, already experimenting with robotics, offered to aid in the development of Paladin LAWS, and fund the program using their vast amounts of money. Their production was moved to the atomic reactor-powered secret base Fort Amarok on Mount Logan in Canada, and thus, by January 1991, first Paladin robots were deployed in Zabrze, Poland, and in other areas around Europe. Armed with prototype Laser Rifles, they were a success, with many Comintern soldiers fearing them and running away or dropping their Kalashnikovs the moment they saw them.
thumb|250px|Two Paladin opening fire upon Soviet positions near Greifswald, GermanyAmong the soldiers who encountered them was Yuri Semashkoshov, the Spetsnaz operative responsible for many operations behind enemy lines; just a few days later, he was ordered by the Soviet government to destroy Fort Amarok. Yuri destroyed it's nuclear reactor, causing the entire joint American-Canadian research facility to erupt in a small mushroom cloud, forever destroying the Paladin program, including the very powerful prototype for it's second stage. The few surviving Paladin were used to defend Area 51, but were destroyed by Yuri when he raided it.
===After the War===
NATO officers believed that Shigeru Mishima will be greatly outraged by this multi-million dollar failure, and the destruction of all of his Paladin LAWS, but the Japanese tycoon simply hand-waved the loss, only leaving the Department of Defense with the cryptic words "What I wanted to stay in one piece, was not destroyed, at least". Even Dyson himself finally had to kowtow and agree that maybe giant bipedal robots weren't as practical as a blunt M1 Abrams tank or a A-10 strike, and thus, in the future, DARPA mostly stuck to small threaded or flying drones.
Category:Organizations Category:NATO Category:Robots