Project AGILE

Project AGILE was an Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) project in the 1960s that investigated means for engaging in remote, limited warfare of an asymmetric type. The research was intended for use in providing U.S. support to countries engaged in fighting Communist insurgents, particularly in Vietnam and Thailand.

Project AGILE was directed by the United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration, or ARPA, and ran from mid 1961 through 1974, when it was canceled. The project was charged with developing methods to use in the looming Vietnam War, and also provided information for use by Thailand in counterinsurgency action against Communist rebels.

Project AGILE covered a wide range of topics related to warfare under various conditions present in the Far East, from electronic surveillance, used to interdict Communist convoys in the Ho Chi Minh trail, to sociological research on troops likely to be subverted by Communist rebels. It was broken down into a number of subprojects.

Subprojects II and VIII were merged into Subproject I, and the resulting subproject covered weapons, individual equipment, and rations. Individual weapons included the M16 assault rifle, special purpose shotguns for use as insurgency weapons, flamethrowers, and rifle grenades. Crew served weapons included cupolas for armored personnel carriers, quad-mount machine guns, squeeze bore .50 to .30 caliber guns, multiple shot grenade launchers, lightweight mortars, and the Stoner 63 weapons system.

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