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U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory

A pioneering U.S. Army research center at Aberdeen Proving Ground, it helped shape modern ballistics and military computing. It is especially remembered for its role in the early use of ENIAC, one of the first electronic general-purpose computers.

1 Audiobook

Army Pulse Radiation Facility

Army Pulse Radiation Facility

by U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory

About the author

The U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, often called BRL, was a major Army research facility at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Its work focused on interior, exterior, and terminal ballistics, along with vulnerability and lethality analysis for weapons and military systems.

Its roots go back to the Army’s ballistic research efforts during World War I, and sources describing the laboratory’s history say BRL was formally created in 1938. Over time, it became one of the Army’s key centers for research tied to weapon behavior, armor, and high-speed computation.

BRL is widely associated with early computing history because ENIAC was delivered to the laboratory after World War II for ballistic calculations. In 1992, the laboratory’s mission, personnel, and facilities were incorporated into the newly created U.S. Army Research Laboratory.