[3] Its creation was largely influenced by a prevailing military policy following World War II to separate research and development from production.

With few exceptions, weapons research and development took place alongside arms production within the network of manufacturing arsenals owned by the Army.

Bush believed that the private sector represented the future of scientific advancement and that the primary source of technological innovation for the nation should reside in universities and research institutes instead of government agencies.

[4] The success of OSRD in mobilizing the private sector to develop critical wartime inventions like the atomic bomb and the microwave radar also swayed key leaders in the armed services to establish new organizations that served a similar purpose.

[4][7] Situated in Faculty House 2 on the campus of Duke University and designated as a Class II military installation, OOR functioned as the central office for handling basic research programs sponsored by the Ordnance Corps.

[7][8][9] The agency consisted of four main divisions pertaining to chemistry, mathematics, engineering, and physics, and focused on five principal areas: exploratory, ballistics, materials and construction, combustion, and friction and wear.

In September 1951, OOR sponsored its first technical paper, a study on heat flow by a Wayne State University researcher, and initiated a total of 88 projects by the end of the year.

Furthermore, the Army set into motion the plan to relocate ARO from the campus of Duke University to a newly constructed building in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

ARO, however, not only kept its traditional role under LABCOM, but it also retained its ability to interact directly with AMC Headquarters and the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Research, Development, and Acquisition.

The ARO research program consisted of the following divisions: Electronics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Engineering, Material Science, Mathematics, and Geosciences.

[25] Army funding provided by ARO’s extramural research programs contributed to numerous scientific and technological achievements that later received global acclaim through the bestowal of the Nobel Prize.