Strategic Technology Office

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Strategic Technology Office (STO) develops technology to give national security leaders trusted, disruptive capabilities to win in all physical domains (air, space, sea, and land) and across the spectrum of competition, from deterrence to high-end peer combat. Leveraging advancements in technologies such as advanced microelectronics, increased computing capacity, and applied machine learning/artificial intelligence, STO pursues solutions in the areas of advanced active and passive sensing; battlefield effects; command, control and communications; new paradigm of systems warfare; and critical capabilities to promote national resilience. STO develops and delivers solutions at a speed and scale to be operationally relevant, moving from the initiation of the project to proof of concept in just a few years. STO’s broad span of research domains allows the office to rethink competition. The Department of Defense has primarily focused on competition related to battlefield activities and to create asymmetries advantageous for U.S. forces. Recent world events have demonstrated the impact of other dimensions of competition such as economic, environmental, marketplace, and manufacturing. Therefore, STO develops technologies to create opportunities for asymmetries in these broad areas of competition.