90 OCEAN SCIENCES AND NATIONAL SECURITY 



(b) Effect of sea state and swells in producing sound scattering, reverberation, 

 and ambient noise; . 



(c) Effect of the thermocline, salinity, biological organisms, and internal waves 

 on sound propagation and volume reverberation for sonar systems; 



(d) Effect of deep velocity profiles on propagation of 1 )ng-range sonar signals; 



(e) Effect of the slope, roughness, and reflectivity of the sea floor on bottom 

 reflection characteristics; 



(/) Means to predict the thickness and temperature gradient of upper water 

 layers to determine the propagation for surface sonar systems; and 



(g) Effect of ice thickness, roughness, and composition on acoustic scattering 

 and reverberation. 



In addition, oceanographic research is required to explain many of the phe- 

 nomena associated with nouacoustic methods of submarine detection now under 

 study. It is anticipated that it will serve as the basis for understanding or for 

 evaluating detection methods yet to be devised. 



2. Q. (a) Does the Navy have an operational requirement for oceanographic 

 research? 



H>) Is it regarded as part of the ASW program and what priority does it enjoy? 



(c) Could you trace the Navy's program in oceanography over the past 5 to 

 10 years? 



A. (a) The Navy's program for basic research in oceanography is contained in 

 the "tENOC program (for 10 years in oceanography). This document describes 

 the research supported by the Navy in nongovernmental laboratories and insti- 

 tutions. In addition, the Chief of Naval Operations has provided the technical 

 bureaus with operational requirements for military systems in which oceanographic 

 research is necessary. 



(6) The oceanography program is included in the Navy ASW program and enjoys 

 the same high priority. [Emphasis added.] 



(c) Since World War II the Navy has been the principal supporter of ocean- 

 ography in the United States. Recognizing in early 1956 that the needs for 

 knowledge of the oceans were increasing more rapidly than were the capabilities 

 of the science, the Navy, with the Atomic Energy Commission and the Bureau 

 of Commercial Fisheries, was instrumental in the estabhshment of the Committee 

 on Oceanography under the aegis of the National Academy of Sciences, National 

 Research Council.^^ 



To a great extent, the problems sponsored by the Bureau of Ships 

 tend to have specific practical goals and in the main involve military 

 security classification. As a consequence, with few exceptions, these 

 activities are also regarded as in the category of military oceanography. 



Inasmuch as the preponderance of naval action has, in the past, 

 occurred at the sea surface, hulls have had to be designed so as to 

 provide naval vessels with the highest possible performance in terms 

 of speed and maneuverability, in both calm and rough waters. Until 

 recent years, most of the designs have been optimized m terms of 

 smooth water operation. Hull shapes were almost exclusively con- 

 ditioned by results from model tests conducted in still water basins, 

 in the belief that the behavior of the sea was itself so complex as to 

 defy description or understanding necessary for consideration as a 

 design parameter. 



Provisions have now been incorporated in such test facilities to 

 simulate wave action, but even more exciting and significant has 

 been the application of more sophisticated tools of hydrodynainic 

 research wherein the apparently random and confused pattern of the 

 sea can be mathematically described. Naturally, any such abstract 

 representation depends upon correlation with data collected from the 

 sea itself and there is now a rapidly growmg area of interest and 

 activity within the Bureau of Ships to observe and describe the sea 

 so as to be able to represent it adequately in future hull design. A 

 great deal of this activity is undertaken at the David Taylor Model 



M" Frontiers In Ocoanlc Research," op. cit., pp. 62-63. 



