study of the feasibility of developing special pur- 

 pose computers to reduce drastically the cost of 

 calculating viscous flows. 



Physics 



Physics as a frontier discipline and, in recent 

 decades, as an applied discipline has so permeat- 

 ed military and civilan technology, that all its 

 manifestations could not be catalogued. The ex- 

 amples given below of current research in the 

 Navy represent a small sample of the diversity of 

 the Navy's physics program. 



The potential for lasers to contribute signifi- 

 cantly to antishipping-missile defense and to un- 

 derwater surveillance and communications moti- 

 vates current efforts in laser physics. Research on 

 the basic aspects of plasmas, ions, atoms, mole- 

 cules, and crystals is providing the basis for ad- 

 vances in high-energy lasers and for blue/green las- 

 ers. This research is also leading to the develop- 

 ment and use of lasers for controlled and highly 

 selective production of excited states, a technolo- 

 gy with far-reaching economic and military impli- 

 cations. 



Research in the area of relativistic electron 

 beams — their generation, their interactions with 

 electromagnetic fields and consequent radiation — 

 offers the potential for generating very high-pow- 

 er, very high-frequency microwave and millimeter 

 wave energy which may in turn provide revolu- 

 tionary improvements in surveillance and elec- 

 tronic countermeasure systems. This work is part 

 of a general thrust for more effective use of the 

 electromagnetic spectrum. 



Superconductive electronics research currently 

 in progress offers promising advantages for future 

 naval communications, surveillance, computer, 

 and electronic warfare systems. The advantages 

 are extremely high speed, large band-width, high 

 sensitivity, low noise, and low device power and 

 loss. A specific example would be analog-to-digi- 

 tal conversion at sampling rates of I to 10 Ghz. 



Chemistry 



The Navy's chemistry program provides re- 

 search to the Navy and the Marine Corps on as- 

 pects of chemical materials and the electrochemi- 

 cal production and storage of energy. Per- 

 formance criteria for naval chemical materials 

 frequently exceed the capacities of existing ma- 

 terials. New materials must therefore be synthe- 

 sized and characterization techniques must be 

 developed to predict their performance in a variety 

 of demanding environments such as low (Arctic) as 

 well as high temperatures, high pressure, intense 

 electromagnetic radiation, and highly corrosive 

 chemical environments. The Navy's chemical ma- 



terials research explores the synthesis of new, 

 high-performance, polymeric materials and espe- 

 cially "inorganic" polymers which contain noncar- 

 bon backbones and thus offer new classes of ma- 

 terials totally different from typical carbon-back- 

 bone, commercial polymers. Supporting work for 

 this polymer research is also sponsored and in- 

 cludes the development of characterization tech- 

 niques, such as torsional braid analysis and the 

 synthesis of polymer precursors, such as boron 

 compounds. As already mentioned, the ONR- 

 sponsored research on the synthesis of boron hy- 

 drides received attention when Professor William 

 Lipscomb received the 1976 Nobel Prize in chem- 

 istry for his contributions to the field. Future direc- 

 tions in the chemical materials area include re- 

 search on electroactive polymers. It is hoped that 

 this research will lead to nontraditional uses of 

 polymers as piezoelectrics, pyroelectrics, and even 

 conducting materials. 



In order to provide a technology base for the 

 development of new batteries for propulsion, 

 communications, and other Navy and Marine 

 Corps needs. ONR sponsors research in electro- 

 chemistry related to electrode processes and 

 phenomena associated with high energy density 

 electrochemical systems. These include electrode 

 passivation, dendritic growth of material on elec- 

 trodes, and the chemistry of nonaqueous electro- 

 lyte solutions. A recent product of this research 

 was a new lithium-thionyl chloride battery system 

 with very high density, which is currently under 

 development by the Navy and Air Force for a 

 variety of military uses. This program has special 

 significance because basic electrochemistry re- 

 search, especially theoretical electrochemistry, is 

 not well supported in the United States. 



In support of these broad areas and other gen- 

 eral requirements, ONR sponsors chemical re- 

 search in analysis of the composition and struc- 

 ture of chemical materials and their reaction ki- 

 netics and energetics. Special attention is devoted 

 to solids and liquids and their surfaces with an 

 awareness of application areas such as lubrica- 

 tion, corrosion, photo-degradation, chemical light 

 sources, and catalytic processes. 



IVIaterials 



Almost all developing technologies are paced by 

 materials capabilities. Hence, an important part 

 of the naval research program is directed toward 

 advancing materials technologies. Research is 

 done on metals and alloys, ceramics and inorganic 

 solids, special performance materials, processing 

 of new materials, and deterioration in (and protec- 

 tion from) severe operating environments. 



DEFENSE 77 



