ARL:UT 1945-1995

WORLD WAR II
At World War II’s beginning, the U.S. military had few research and development centers. The National Defense Research Committee hurriedly organized a number of civilian laboratories, one of these was the Harvard Underwater Sound Laboratory (HUSL) renowned for its key role in developing Navy sonars and homing torpedoes.

DRL FOUNDED
Dr. C.P. Boner, a physics professor, had taken leave from The University of Texas from 1942-1945 to serve HUSL as its associate director. In early 1945, dialog began between Dr. Boner, the Applied Physics Laboratory at Silver Spring, Maryland, and The University of Texas to establish a Naval Ordnance project at UT. In September 1945, Dr. Boner became director of the Defense Research Laboratory (DRL). DRL’s first work was on the Bumble Bee Program, a surface-to-air guided missile project. In 1949, DRL expanded its program to include underwater acoustics. Here Dr. Boner was assisted by R.N. Lane, Dr. C.W. Horton, Sr., and R.H. Wallace, who also had served at HUSL. They demonstrated that effective research on underwater acoustics could be performed without a nearby ocean. Lake Travis Test Station was constructed in the early 1950s to provide additional test facilities for this inland lab.

EVOLUTION
ARL:UT traces its origin to both DRL and the War Research Laboratory (WRL), established by NRDC in 1942 to conduct aerial gunnery research. WRL, which had been renamed Military Physics Laboratory (MPRL), and DRL merged in 1964, with MPRL becoming a division of DRL. Some years later DRL moved into new facilities at Balcones Research Center, which today is UT’s Pickle Research Campus. In 1968, DRL was renamed Applied Research Laboratories.

ARL:UT TODAY
With a staff of over 600, ARL:UT conducts programs on basic and applied research, development, engineering, testing, evaluation, and assessment germane principally to the defense of the United States. From its beginning ARL:UT has served as a training ground for young engineers and scientists, typically, 25% of ARL:UT staff are graduate and undergraduate students. The University’s strong commitment to academic excellence provides ARL:UT with staff who are top quality science and engineering students and faculty members.

TASKING TRENDS
ARL:UT’s work mix has changed with the end of the cold war, the emergence of new regional threats, and the new emphasis on shallow water warfare. Work in satellite geodesy and in information and data processing has increased. Exciting new work-the application of ruggedized COTS hardware and commercial software, and the ever-increasing applications of high capacity telecommunications-is having a marked effect on ARL:UT’s products.

RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS
ARL:UT’s research efforts are now directed at high resolution sonar, shallow water acoustics, software system research, geographic system development for the USMC, satellite geodesy, anti-submarine warfare (ASW), active sonar, undersea surveillance, and information and data processing.

FROM OUR BEGINNINGS. . .