5. Design development of several new ship concepts, such as Navy's 

 multipurpose dry cargo ship and the Maritime Administration's catamaran 

 containership. 



6. A study in depth by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the 

 Department of Defense of the military, commercial, and research potential of 

 surface effects vehicles for Arctic use. An Arctic operational capability has 

 been selected as a development goal since the potential impact of fast, long- 

 range, high-payload transportation over open water, pack ice, and tundra 

 is substantial. 



American industry has also responded to the challenge of reducing costs 

 by increasing ship speeds, by designing specialized ships and transportation 

 systems, by building larger ships, and by investing funds in modern auto- 

 mated continuous-flow shipyards. 



Attaining a competitively economic merchant marine is not being de- 

 layed primarily by a lack of technology, but rather by obstructions prevent- 

 ing application of existing technology'. The Navy through its ship research 

 and development programs, model basins, and laboratories has been in the 

 forefront of advanced ship concepts. Although, for naval applications, im- 

 provement in performance is a strong requirement, the work that has been 

 done can be applied, for merchant ship applications, for improvement in de- 

 sign criteria and earning capacity. 



The ship channel at Galveston, Tex., was recently deepened and improved by the 

 Corps of Engineers to accommodate larger vessels. Improvements of harbor and 

 terminal facilities contribute to the increased efficiency of our merchant marine. 



57 



