For many, the digital explosion came by way of the World Wide Web – a specific set of protocols available to anyone with a connection.  

But before Tim Berners-Lee could write the first web browser computer program, he needed the foundation upon which the Internet was created. And that came by way of DoD employees, professors and contractors working at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in the 1970s.

"Few inventions have had a greater effect on world lives than the Internet, which makes it one of the most important spin-offs of military technology in the history of the department," said Bob Hale, Booz Allen fellow, former Defense Department comptroller, and member of the Defense News advisory board.

It all started with the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, an early packet switching network and the first network to implement the protocol suite TCP/IP, developed for ARPANET by computer scientists Robert Kahn and Vint Cerf.

Of course, while the birth of the internet happened in DoD, much of its evolution was thanks to the private sector. It was an inflection point for government, said Dave Wennergren, senior vice president for technology for the Professional Services Council and former Navy CIO and Defense Department official, in an interview with Defense News sister publication Federal Times.

"Years ago, government was at the center of technology, whether it was IARPANET and the creation of the internet, or the fact that government did all its own computer programming [and] was right in the middle of the creation of the first computers and software languages," he said. "It’s a different place now. It’s no longer a world where government agencies have thousands of computer programmers on staff. And it’s certainly no longer a world where technology research is predominantly done by government. The inflection point for the government was, ‘We no longer completely control this.’ "

The result was quite good – this virtual cloud-based world that functions via the power of mobile devices, always on and always connected. Whether on the battlefield or supporting the enterprise, the paper-based world began to fade. The military first faced a cultural change – a willingness to think differently, to accept that blocking access to information could no longer be standard, and that perhaps there was even an advantage to increasing communication even beyond the walls of the Pentagon.

Of course, with that expanding network, the world, including the military, is left struggling to stay ahead of the technological capabilities.

"While the web created a dam of amazing opportunities, it also was the precursor to the challenges we’re now dealing with in terms of cybersecurity and the constant threat to the intellectual capital, competitive advantage of this nation and this government," Wennergren said. "The internet opened the barn door. And there’s no closing it once it’s opened."

This article is part of a larger Defense News 30-year anniversary project, showcasing the people, programs and innovations from the last three decades that most shaped the global security arena. Go to defensenews.com/30th to see all of our coverage.

About Jill Aitoro

Jill Aitoro is editor of Defense News. She is also executive editor of Sightline Media's Business-to-Government group, including Defense News, C4ISRNET, Federal Times and Fifth Domain. She brings over 15 years’ experience in editing and reporting on defense and federal programs, policy, procurement, and technology.

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