As seen in the world"s science and technology development trends, world"s leading countries are now focusing on disruptive innovation. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has focused on disruptive innovation since its inception and has created many well-known disruptive technologies over the decades. Its excellent management mechanism is worth learning from. Based on the project life cycle theory, we firstly compose the organizational structure and innovation ecology of DARPA. Then the DARPA Disruptive Innovation Program operational process and the characteristics of each phase are given. Finally, we discuss the inspiration from DARPA for Chinese disruptive innovation projects from the hiring of project managers, risk management, acquisition mechanism, and communication mechanism.