DeLauer wanted Cooper, a former football player known for his forceful personality, to return to the Pentagon and take over two jobs. Cooper would work directly for DeLauer, as an assistant secretary of defense, while also heading DARPA, which, following the success of the stealth aircraft, was regarded as a hotbed of innovation, a sort of corporate lab that could quickly push out military technologies. And with Reagan in the White House, there was going to be a huge demand for new military weapons.
