Proper noun
(military, US, historical) Acronym of Advanced Research Projects Agency (renamed to DARPA in 1972)
(navigation) Initialism of Automatic Radar Plotting Aid
Source: en.wiktionary.orgI was very nervous about going up to teach at Stanford and very nervous even about going to ARPA. Vint Cerf
After the ARPANET had been up and running for several years, ARPA looked for another agency to hand off the network to; ARPA's primary mission was funding cutting edge research and development, not running a communications utility. Source: Internet
ARPA funding for both the Super Foonly and the new operating system was cut in 1974. Source: Internet
ARPA's first director, Roy Johnson, left a $160,000 management job at General Electric for an $18,000 job at ARPA. Source: Internet
ARPA was behind such technological leaps as the Global Positioning System and the forerunner to the internet. Source: Internet
Johnson resigned and ARPA was repurposed to do "high-risk," "high-gain," "far out" basic research, a posture that was enthusiastically embraced by the nation's scientists and research universities. Source: Internet