OCEAN SCIENCES AND NATIONAL SECURITY 33 



the far more challenging problem of being able to identify a submarine 

 or even bottom crawler that has secreted itself amongst the hills 

 and valleys of an irregular bottom, or is simpl}^ sitting on a "sea 

 mount." 



Not knowing that an aggressor is nearby is perhaps the most discon- 

 certing aspect of this potential. Just as higher altitude performance 

 for aircraft has paid off, whether it be for combat or for surveillance, 

 the extended depth capability of submarine suggests the same potential 

 benefit. But the "proof of the pudding" must lie in experiments with 

 deep-diving vehicles not yet in being. 



Not to be forgotten in this discussion of operation at depth is the 

 desire for manned vehicles for oceanographic research itself. The 

 advantages of having an observer in the environment he is studying, 

 rather than relying on instruments at the remote end of a cable towed 

 by a surface ship, is obvious, and this aspect of oceanographic research 

 is expanded in Section VI. But a sample of the extended research 

 capabilities which attend availability of manned vehicles for research 

 in the deep ocean is a prelude to combat operations at depths. A 

 hsting of projects necessary for developing knowledge of the deep 

 ocean, presented by the bathyscaph crew to the House Science and 

 Astronautics Committee, is appended. 



Finally, there is the matter of engineering operations on the ocean 

 bed. Exploring for oil and minerals, much less the development of 

 any such resources, is sure to be enhanced by availabihty of manned 

 vehicles that can operate from the surface to the bottom, anywhere. 



There is thus an emerging set of military as well as nonmilitary 

 demands to study the en the ocean, and as a related objective, to 

 develop an enthely new generation of vehicles for operation far 

 deeper than is currently possible with contemporary submarines. 



