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Mr. Chairman: 



I welcome this opportunity to appear before you on 

 behalf of the Defense Mapping Agency (DMA) to discuss the 

 dual use of Defense technology for oceanographic research and 

 navigation. I will present: 

 - an overview of DMA; 



a status report on DMA's cooperative efforts with 

 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

 (NOAA) ; 



a summary of cooperative development efforts 

 underway between DMA and NOAA which potentially 

 benefit the civil sector; and 

 highlights of other DMA products serving the 

 oceanographic research community. 



I. DMA Overview. 



In 1972, DMA was established to consolidate the various 

 unique mapping organizations in each of the Military 

 Departments. In 1986, the Goldwater-Nichols Defense 

 Reorganization Act (10 USC § 193) designated DMA as a Combat 

 Support Agency. Today the 8,200 people of DMA provide 

 mapping, charting, and geodesy (MC&G) information to all 

 elements of the Department of Defense (DoD) . MC&G is defined 

 as the collection, transformation, generation, dissemination, 

 and storing of geodetic, hydrographic, cultural and 

 topographic data. Essentially, DMA provides precise 

 geographic information about the earth. Millions of paper 

 maps and charts and massive amounts of digital data are 

 provided annually to ensure the highest state of operational 

 readiness of our military forces and their sophisticated 

 navigation, weapon, and command and control systems. In 

 addition, as I will explain later, DMA also has statutory 

 responsibilities to support the civil sector, particularly 

 with respect to its nautical products. Within DoD, DMA 



