84 OCEAN SCIENCES AND NATIONAL SECURITY 



From the foregoing discussion it is clear that the United States, 

 insofar as is known, has capabilities in terms of deep water vehicles, 

 either in being or at the threshold of construction, that could maintain 

 the United States in a position of leadership in this area. The 

 United States has abeady been first to the bottom, so that in terms of 

 purely spectacular achievement, this Nation is clearly in the lead. 

 There remains, however, the systematic utihzation of deep ocean 

 vehicles in a coherent program of research which can come only when 

 vehicles themselves are both available and provided with sufficient 

 logistic support that those responsible for research can concern them- 

 selves with scientific observations rather than the idiosyncrasies and 

 operational problems of the vehicles themselves. 



In this regard, the Trieste, the Aluminaut, and, in fact, any other 

 of these special vehicles will requhe a special mother ship either to 

 tow or to handle the craft at sea. In terms of the present inventory, 

 no ship has yet been assigned for this particular pmpose. Dr! 

 Rcchnitzer in testimony before the House Committee in response to 

 questions by Representative Fulton reports this development im- 

 minent: 



Mr. Fulton. I am interested seriously, though, in how you were funded for 

 your current operations. In the current fiscal year are your funds adequate? 



Secondly, are your equipment and instruments adequate? 



Thirdly, for the coming fiscal year, has there been any cutoff of any appropria- 

 tion or authorization you have requested so that you are without any major 

 equipment or ancillary equipment, for example? 



Do you have a better equipped mother ship, or a better bathyscaph, or a more 

 mobile bathyscaph, that you might do better than, what is it, 1 mile an horn- 

 laterally? Have you been cut off? 



There has been a rumor around that you have received a cut by somebody 



Dr. Kechnitzek. I think that we are being adequately funded for the coming 

 hscal year, and that progress toward an adequate mother ship is moving alone 

 just as fast as it is practicable. & & 



Mr. Fulton. Then you have not in any respect had an appropriation cut, either 

 ?n the current fiscal year, or a cut in the request for authorization in the next 

 nscal year.' 



Dr. Rechnitzer. We will not know probably until some time after the end of 

 the fiscal year just where we do stand. 



plakdn- about? ^^^' ^""^ ^* *^''' present time there is no cut that you are com- 



Dr. Rechnitzer. No, I have no serious complaint. 



Mr. Fulton. Is the appropriation adequate enough to keep you moving on 

 your research on a level with the Russian effort? ^ 



Dr. Rechnitzer: Yes, as far as we can see in the coming year, we will certainlv 

 tZ fi'eJd '"m ^^'^^ 1 the Russians There is definitely^ ?oom forlxpansio^ S 

 this field. More people, better vehicles, and more minds and hands need to be 

 put to tlie task of getting more manned vehicles into the deep sea.^s 



At the time this report was prepared, no assignment had yet been 

 made ol a mother ship. 



In discussing the present inventory of manned vehicles for operation 

 m deep water, sight should not be lost of a rich variety of other manned 

 and unmanned vehicles and devices which oceanographers desire for 

 research an d which are totally nonexistent. 



«* "Frontiers in Oceanic Reseaich," op. cit. pp. 38-39. 



