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The Mapping Project

Draper Laboratory

The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., or Draper Laboratory, is a research and development non-profit headquartered in Cambridge MA, with a second Massachusetts site in of Pittsfield MA along with six sites in other states. Draper Laboratory is a major supplier of the US military and maintains close ties with Boston area universities.

Draper Laboratory has received $6.13 billion to date from US Department of Defense (DOD) contracts for the provision of products and services to the US military, including $1.29 billion to date from DoD contracts designated under the category "Other Guided Missile and Space Vehicle Parts and Auxiliary Equipment Manufacturing." In November, 2021, the US Air Force awarded Draper along with 55 other contractors a digital engineering contract aimed improving the US Air Force's "ability to work on digital designs of its future platforms." The contract is worth a potential $46 billion total, which will be shared between Draper and the other contractors over the next 11 years. In November 2021, US President Biden nominated Draper Laboratory President and CEO Bill LaPlante to the position of "Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment" in the US Department of Defense (DoD), a testament to the grotesque "revolving door" that exists between the US Pentagon and the US weapons industry contractors who supply and profit from it.

Draper Laboratory has forged significant links with Boston area universities. Since 1973, Draper has partnered with local universities through the "Draper Scholar Program," through which Draper hosts 50+ graduate-level students per year in research fellowships wherein these students "conduct their research under the supervision of both a university faculty advisor and a Draper technical staff supervisor in an area of mutual interest." Local universities currently participating in the Draper Scholar Program include MIT, Harvard University, Boston University, Northeastern University, Tufts University, and the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

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