In 1990, APL became involved with Operation Desert Storm and was involved in the Gulf Crisis Room among other efforts. The follow-on RIM-50 Typhon Missile Project, based on improved Talos and Tartar Missiles, while successful, was cancelled in 1963 due to high costs and was eventually developed into the now well-known Aegis Combat System based on an improved Terrier. APL conducts programs in fundamental and applied research exploratory and advanced development test and evaluation and systems engineering and integration.ĭuring the 1950s and the 1960s APL worked with the US Navy in the Operation Bumblebee Program on the Talos missile, Tartar missile, Terrier, and RIM-2 Terrier Surface to Air Missile systems. More than three-quarters of the staff are technical professionals, and 25% have computer science and math degrees. The Laboratory's name comes from its origins in World War II, but APL's major strengths are systems engineering and technology application.

The Forest Grove Station was vacated and torn down in 1963 and flight simulations were moved to Laurel. Before moving to Laurel, APL also maintained the 'Forest Grove Station,' north of Silver Spring on Georgia Avenue near today's Forest Glen Metro, which included a hypersonic wind tunnel. The final staff transitioned to the new facility in 1975. APL began moving to Laurel in 1954, with the construction of a two million dollar building and a $700,000 wing expansion in 1956. At governmental request, the University continued to maintain the Laboratory as a public service.ĪPL was originally located in Silver Spring, Maryland in a used-car garage at the former Wolf Motor Company building at 8621 Georgia Avenue. Expected to disband at the end of the war, APL instead became heavily involved in the development of guided missile technology for the Navy. From there on, the APL became very involved in wartime research. Pleased with the APL's work, the Navy then tasked it with the mission to find a way to negate guided missile threats. In response to the fuze's success, the APL created the MK 57 gun director in 1944. Section T's Applied Physics Laboratory succeeded in developing the variable-time proximity fuze that played a significant role in the Allied victory. According to the official history of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, Scientists Against Time, APL was the name of Section T's main laboratory from 1942 onward, not the name of the organization overall. Section T was created on August 17, 1940. Its founding director was Merle Anthony Tuve, who led Section T throughout the war. ĪPL was created in 1942 during World War II under the Office of Scientific Research and Development's Section T as part of the Government's effort to mobilize the nation's science and engineering expertise within its universities. Courses are taught at seven locations in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area, including the APL Education Center. Hopkins' Whiting School of Engineering offers part-time graduate programs for Lab staff members through its Engineering for Professionals program. APL is a scientific and engineering research and development division, rather than an academic division, of Johns Hopkins. While APL provides research and engineering services to the government, it is not a traditional defense contractor, as it is a UARC and a division of Johns Hopkins University. APL has developed numerous systems and technologies in the areas of air and missile defense, surface and undersea naval warfare, computer security, and space science and spacecraft construction.

The lab serves as a technical resource for the Department of Defense, NASA, and other government agencies. It is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University and employs 7,800 people (2022). The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory ( Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL) is a not-for-profit university-affiliated research center (UARC) in Howard County, Maryland.

Physics lab