Have Blue did one more thing that most people never realized: it saved the agency from extinction, according to James Tegnelia, who was the deputy director when the stealth aircraft flew. “You can fail at a $10 million program,” he said. “When you’re putting in $100 million, you can’t afford to fail.” Tegnelia credited the sudden growth of “big” technology programs, like Have Blue, with protecting the agency from critics who wanted to shut it down. After the success of Have Blue, “no one questioned the value of DARPA’s investment,” Tegnelia said.
