The acronym AGARD stands for Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development, and was an agency of NATO that existed from 1952 to 1996. AGARD, originally founded as an Agency of the NATO Military Committee, was set up in May 1952 with headquarters in Neuilly sur Seine, France. As its name implies, AGARD's activities concentrated on information exchange in aerospace research. Recent examples of AGARD studies include such topics as non-lethal weapons, theatre ballistic missile defence, protection of large aircraft in peace support operations, and limiting collateral damage caused by air-delivered weapons. AGARD was also one of the first NATO organizations to cooperate with Russia in a mutual exchange of information dealing with flight safety.