Photo By Airman 1st Class Gretchen McCarty | Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency personnel watch an F-16 Fighting Falcon...... read more read more
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SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany – The 52nd Fighter Wing opened its hangar doors to eight scientists and program managers from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Jan. 29, 2026, offering the team of senior researchers a ground-truth view at frontline operations, aircraft and weapons systems.
The visit paired cutting-edge research minds with pilots, maintainers and support teams who execute daily air operations across Europe. The goal: translate operational realities into the next generation of defense breakthroughs.
“We brought a few program managers from DARPA to see the operational force and better understand some of the challenges the teams encounter,” said Robert Rowland, DARPA Academics Collaboration and Experiences academy chief. “We wanted to tour Spangdahlem Air Base because this base forward deploys and our program managers can learn from their experiences.” DARPA is an independent research and development organization within the U.S. Department of War, created in response to the launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957. DARPA’s mission is to prevent and create strategic technological surprise by pursuing transformational, rather than incremental, breakthroughs.
Throughout the visit, DARPA representatives engaged directly with pilots, maintainers, and support teams, discussing mission execution, sustainment challenges, and emerging needs. These conversations can ensure advanced concepts are rooted in real-world demand by grounding advanced concepts in operational demand, DARPA officials said.
“Our goal is to identify weak points that may exist for the unit,” said Brian Stahl, DARPA scientific engineering and technical advisor. “By talking to everyone that is directly involved with the operations, we can fix them and strengthen the future force for our warfighters.”
Working with partners across government, industry, and academia, DARPA focuses on early-stage, high-risk research to prove revolutionary concepts before transitioning them to the military and, in many cases, civilian use. Past innovations include precision weapons, stealth technology, GPS, automated voice recognition and language translation, early internet technologies, and foundational investments in mRNA vaccine research.
| Date Taken: | 02.02.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 02.09.2026 03:36 |
| Story ID: | 557385 |
| Location: | SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, DE |
| Web Views: | 11 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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