DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY 



The Mission of Naval Research 



Role of Basic Research 



The mission of the research program of the 

 U. S. Navy is to plan, procure, and encourage scien- 

 tific research because of its paramount importance 

 to the development and maintenance of future 

 naval power and the preservation of national se- 

 curity. The principal focus of the resources of 

 naval research is the Office of Naval Research 

 (ONR) in accordance with the Act of Congress of 

 August I, 1946, Title 10 U.S.C. 5150-5153 (origi- 

 nally Public Law 588). The relevant language 

 reads: 

 The Office of Naval Research shall perform 

 such duties as the Secretary of the Navy pre- 

 scribes relating to: 



(1) The encouragement, promotion, planning, 

 initiation, and coordination of naval re- 

 search; 



(2) The conduct of naval research in augmenta- 

 tion of and in conjunction with the research 

 and development conducted by the bureaus 

 and other agencies and offices of the De- 

 partment of the Navy, . . . 



Accordingly, the charge to ONR is to exercise 

 leadership in carrying out this mission and to 

 provide within the Department of the Navy a sin- 

 gle office, which by extramural contract and 

 through its laboratories, shall be able to obtain or 

 develop, coordinate, and make available to all ac- 

 tivities of the Department of the Navy, worldwide 

 scientific information and the necessary services 

 for conducting the requisite specialized and ima- 

 ginative naval research. 



Definition of Basic Research 



In the context of the ONR mission of naval 

 research, we define research to include the scien- 

 tific study and experimentation directed toward 

 increasing knowledge and understanding in those 

 fields of the physical, engineering, environmental, 

 biological-medical, and behavioral-social sciences 

 bearing on long-term national security needs. 

 Such research provides fundamental knowledge 

 for the solution of military problems; it also sup- 

 plies part of the base for subsequent exploratory 

 and advanced developments in defense-related 

 technologies such as communications, detection, 

 tracking, surveillance, propulsion, mobility, guid- 

 ance and control, navigation, energy conversion, 

 materials, structures, and personnel support. 



70 DEFENSE 



The management of the research program in the 

 U. S. Navy has some unusual features compared 

 to the programs in most Government agencies. 

 After 1945, the usefulness of science and technol- 

 ogy to the Navy was no longer in question. What 

 remained to be determined was how best to ar- 

 range for the introduction of new science and 

 technology, as they evolved, into Navy practice 

 and equipment. Congress, in establishing the 

 Office of Naval Research, foresaw the value of a 

 single, central office within the Navy that would 

 coordinate Naval research as well as conduct it. 

 implicit in this dual function was a staff made up 

 of scientists who could absorb and appreciate 

 advances at the frontiers of science while, at the 

 same time, appreciating the technological needs of 

 the present and future Navy. The staff of research 

 managers has in fact been composed of members 

 of the scientific and technological communities, as 

 evidenced by their participation in professional 

 societies, the number of professional publications 

 they have produced, and the patents they hold. 

 Experience over the past 30 years has shown the 

 wisdom of this arrangement. The management 

 style and practices developed by ONR have had a 

 demonstrably favorable influence on advances in 

 science and on naval technology. Several sorts of 

 activity characterize the way the Navy's basic 

 research managers carry out their jobs. 



Funding basic research in areas that have im- 

 mediate and obvious bearing on naval operations 

 needs no elaboration. Navy-sponsored research in 

 oceanography, hydrodynamics, and acoustics are 

 well-known and constitute clear examples of mis- 

 sion-oriented scientific work of broad naval inter- 

 est. 



Not much more difficult for the research man- 

 ager to select for support is research in fields of 

 great, but not dominant or exclusive. Navy inter- 

 est. Examples of accomplishments in such fields 

 are: 



• A program of research in the atmospheric 

 sciences produced a method for the dissipa- 

 tion of fog from airfields. 



• Research in metallurgy resulted in the devel- 

 opment of refractory metals and alloys es- 

 sential to the development of high-perform- 

 ance military and civilian platforms. 



• Early ONR recognition and funding of the 

 emerging fields of mathematical statistics and 

 operations research ensured the important 

 contribution of these disciplines to the con- 



