Defense

China To Set Up Its Own “DARPA”

China is no small fish in the weapons exports pool, but its military technology is still lagging behind its competitors. To overcome this, China is taking steps to set up a new agency tasked with  military technology research and development, modeled after the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

DARPA has been responsible for nearly all groundbreaking research into military hardware made in the US in the last half century. If a technology seemed impossible just a few years ago, and today is in active use, chances are DARPA helped make that happen. The legendary agency’s reputations proceeds long before it. It is no wonder then that China wishes to emulate this model now that it seeks to raise itself to a level with its western rivals.

The Chinese government will be spending some $147 billion on defence this year. How much of it will go to R&D is a state secret. The United States, by contrast, spends an average of $570 billion a year on defence. Most of this goes on operations, maintenance and personnel. Research, however, is not an insignificant component of US defence spending.