14 Advanced Military Projects That Could Change The World Forever

http://www.businessinsider.com/14-advanced-military-projects-that-could-change-the-world-forever-2012-8

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) gets a ton of funding to develop the science and technological future of the military.

This is the agency responsible for GPS, the internet and stealth planes. They're the real deal.

- DARPA is more focused on biofuels than almost any other group

- The CORONET program looks into ramping up internet speeds with the application of fiber optic cable technology as part of the core connecting hardware that makes up the physical "internet."

The idea is that a faster internet will expedite communications of military brass to forces on the ground. The civilian windfall, though, will be huge.

- DARPA's ISIS system is a self-sustaining stratospheric military recon blimp (above pictured)

- DARPA's Fixed wireless at a distance program wants to make a new system that can be deployed and greatly expand the power of these networks. The hope is to develop communication devices and systems that has unlimited "scalability."

This means that the number of users on the network can steadily grow without disturbing high speed communications.

- DARPA's Mobile Hotspots program wants to make air, mobile, and fixed assets that provide Gigabit per second tactical access to the network. They're developing advanced pointing, acquisition and tracking capabilities that go beyond what is commercially available in the market.

Once done, the military should be able to use UAVs as flying nodes on the network grid.

- The Renewable At-Sea Power program is developing the capability to harvest and store energy from ocean waves.

This science is crucial for the success of underwater drones. The ability to extract power from the natural forces of their surroundings could enable Automated Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) to run for significantly longer than they can today.

- DARPA is making materials that can handle immense amounts of heat

- Advance Radio Mapping could clear the airwaves

- The Aero-Optic Beam Control program will put defense lasers in the skies

- DARPA wants to re-imagine how we share web content

- A project that can find the locations of all people in a building just by looking at it

- DARPA is figuring out a cheap way to police the Arctic

- An offensive laser weapon mounted on an aircraft