Numerous projects of the US defense agency indicate rather dangerous trends that pose threats to many countries, and even to the Americans themselves.
The DARPA research and development agency, which is the leading initiator and developer of a wide variety of initiatives in the field of warfare – from biological weapons and neuropharmaceuticals to autonomous cybernetic systems, has recently announced a large number of various projects that look quite futuristic. However, one should not be mistaken in this regard – such a future, if implemented, will look rather gloomy. Because everything that the American military and scientists undertake has questionable and dubious goals.
At the end of 2024, the agency announced the launch of the ‘Theory of Mind’ program (Solicitation Number: DARPA -SN-25-14).
According to the official description, the agency “is interested in developing new capabilities to enable national security decisionmakers to optimize strategies for deterring or incentivizing actions by adversaries. As such, the agency is searching for new technical solutions in this space.
Actions are determined by situational awareness, ideas of risks and rewards, and overarching strategy. The goal of an upcoming program will be to develop an algorithmic theory of mind to model adversaries’ situational awareness and predict future behavior. The program will seek to combine algorithms with human expertise to explore, in a modeling and simulation environment, potential courses of action in national security scenarios with far greater breadth and efficiency than is currently possible. This would provide decisionmakers with more options for incentive frameworks while preventing unwanted escalation.. The program will seek not only to understand an actor’s current strategy but also to find a decomposed version of the strategy into relevant basis vectors to track strategy changes under non-stationary assumptions.”
In general, it is about the state-of-the-art in theory of mind and deterrence and compellence – the direct power elements of US foreign policy. The ‘Theory of Mind’ is aimed at understanding the behavior of adversaries and neutral parties in order to use pressure on weaknesses and vulnerabilities to dictate their political conditions. In some ways, this project also resembles the Pentagon’s concept of “Algorithmic Warfare.”
Another similar program, A3ML (The Anticipatory and Adaptive Anti-Money Laundering) aims to develop algorithms to sift through financial transactions It is justified by the need to monitor criminal activity and money laundering, although in fact it is pure financial and industrial espionage, since it can be used to monitor any international financial transactions.
It should be noted that the agency has recently been trying to play democracy and has created a free DARPAConnect resource to help facilitate new and nontraditional performers to work together.
https://www.darpaconnect.us/opportunities
On the US government contracting resource website you can find a bidding from DARPA to find contractors for the PREventing EMerging Pathogenic Threats (PREEMPT) project, which is related to biological research.
https://sam.gov/opp/0afd480f853c18e2d245745bfd5cfcef/view#description
Current projects are also attracting attention in this area. For example, a “Self-assembling vaccine platform” was announced in the budget for 2025. To date, there has been nothing like this in medicine, since vaccines are “assembled” for some specific task. But it is quite possible to design new viruses and pathogens using such a tool.
Another project in the process of implementation is (REDI-NET), The Remote Emerging Disease Intelligence NETwork officially designated to address emerging infectious disease surveillance needs. There is also a “Sensor platform for monitoring combat wounds in sepsis.” Biological protection measures are clearly meant here, which means the use of bacteriological or chemical weapons is implied. In the field of military pharmacology, the RBC-Factory (Red Blood Cell Factory) project has been launched, the purpose of which is to modify red blood cells to improve the physiological abilities of the warfighters.
And in January 2025, in accordance with a previously completed contract for DARPA, CarryGenes Bioengineering (which was also created with the direct participation of DARPA in 2013) filed a patent application for synthetic chromosome technology. This also applies directly to genetically modified warfare, since the patent indicates the possibility of creating “new products” that previously did not exist in nature. What kind of monster can come out of a test tube of such technology can only be guessed.
DARPA continues to be interested in hybrid models. Among the latest requests is the HyBRIDS project, which involves an integration of robotics and biological components to be used “in various national security contexts.” The Microsystem Induced CAtalysis project, which involves combining biological molecules with electronics, also represents something similar, but on a more miniaturized level. Presumably, the molecules attached to the microcircuits should act as catalysts and control the necessary biological processes.
The PODPower project is to develop biological energy sources to power a system of sensors and devices located in the world’s oceans. It is assumed that bacteria that process substances from seawater into electricity will be used for this. If it can be implemented, the United States will begin to install a network of such sensors. Plausible pretexts will be more than enough, for example, monitoring the ecological status and possible emissions of harmful substances, the temperature regime (under the auspices of global warming), studying the migration of organisms, etc. It will not be a surprise if the first sensors appear in the area of important trade routes and near ports and other coastal infrastructure of foreign countries, primarily near the borders of China and Russia.
There is also a HORCREX project in the field of sensors, which aims to improve the navigation system. The new type of sensor is designed to use mechanical frequency combs, which will ensure stable operation under possible overloads.
There is an interesting project related to the use of existing unmodified vegetation. The eX Virentia program is aimed at studying the natural properties of plants that can be used as sensors. In other words, some kind of weed or inconspicuous grass can become, at least, an element of passive monitoring of certain spectra (radioactive and electromagnetic radiation, the content of impurities in the air), and at most, an element of a global network of surveillance and surveillance.
However, not all projects are relatively new. The Materials Genome initiative has been in existence since 2011. It is a federal interdepartmental project aimed at the search, production and implementation of advanced materials twice as fast and at lower cost compared to traditional methods. The initiative provides for the development of policies, resources, and infrastructure to support U.S. institutions in implementing methods to accelerate the development of materials.
Since the launch of MGI, the federal government has been investing in the research and development infrastructure needed to accelerate the search, design, development, and deployment of new advanced materials in existing and emerging U.S. industries. Although it is officially stated that modern materials are necessary for economic security and human well-being, in fact, they are no less in demand in the military industry, and usually in the United States all promising developments pass through the military–industrial complex before they enter the general market.ns in implementing methods to accelerate the development of materials.
Well, if the initiative is implemented internally or with the participation of DARPA, there is no doubt that the results, first of all, will go to the needs of the war.
Indicatively, with regards to MGI it is said that it “ can help realize a future where artificial intelligence-powered autonomous experimentation (AI/AE) can accelerate the design and deployment of new materials that meet semiconductor industry targets, while also building in sustainability requirements from the outset.” On October 30, 2024, the CHIPS R&D Program announced The CHIPS AI/AE for Rapid, Industry-informed Sustainable Semiconductor Materials and Processes (CARISSMA) funding opportunity.
https://www.mgi.gov/2024-materials-genome-initiative-mgi-challenges
There may also be a connection with another program called INTACT (Intrinsically Tough and Affordable Ceramics Today ), which aims to create a new type of ceramic with high strength, stiffness, environmental resistance, and fracture toughness (according to the stated criteria, structural ceramics have the potential to be 10x stronger than metals) and the ability to withstand high temperatures. Obviously, such material is needed to produce supersonic weapons, which the Pentagon cannot yet develop and is afraid of similar weapons available in Russia. It is significant that among the stated requirements, the material must have a stable property at a temperature of 1200 degrees Celsius for 24 hours, which indicates either a deliberate margin of safety, or a project for a barrage munition or a supersonic drone with a long time reserve.
In computer systems, The Right Space program is aimed at new discoveries in the field of mathematical formulas. Only now it has to be done by a computer using artificial intelligence and, probably, on a quantum processor.
Even a brief overview of new and previously launched programs is impressive. Although not everything will be implemented fully and on time, even some successful projects can undermine international security and stability. An “insane“ computer system or a new mutant virus.
Suffice it to recall that in 2018, DARPA launched the PREventing EMerging Pathogenic Threats project to prevent the transmission of dangerous viruses from animals to humans. The research focused on viruses transmitted from animals to humans. Special attention was paid to bats, which are natural reservoirs of coronaviruses (including MERS–CoV), filoviruses (for example, Ebola), as well as Zika, Lassa and influenza viruses.
https://sam.gov/opp/0afd480f853c18e2d245745bfd5cfcef/view
The experiments were conducted in US military laboratories with the highest level of biological protection (BSL–3 and BSL–4). Two years later, the COVID–19 epidemic began.
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