DARPA, MIT nano, FFW?

Considering the scope of the projects undergoing study by these three research institues and the public nature of the tech being studied, you have to wonder how fast they are making breakthroughs, and whether or not these are just fluff projects designed to hide how far they have actually advanced. There is no question that military technology has almost always been ahead of corporate technology, except during co-ventures. So how far have they really come.
web.mit.edu...
www.natick.army.mil...
www.darpa.mil...