69 



ral Paul Tobin, who is very well qualified for the job. But it's going 

 to be a tough job relieving George Davis. 



I wanted to get that in the record and I hope you don't mind. 



Mr. Weldon. Without a doubt, we don't mind. We note that for 

 the record and we extend our best wishes for the outstanding, ex- 

 emplary career that has been provided for the people of this coun- 

 try. 



Admiral BOORDA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And then on my 

 left is Commander of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanographer 

 Command, Rear Admiral Paul Gaffhey. He is an expert with a ca- 

 reer in oceanography. 



He directs our operational day-to-day programs. He is a direct 

 interface with most of the people you're hearing from. 



Our program is wide-ranging because of our mission. It includes 

 traditional oceanography, meteorology, weather forecasting, map- 

 ping, charting, geodesy, astronomy, and also positions of stars and 

 precise timing, all those things which we need to carry out a naval 

 mission in defense. 



We need that information about the world's oceans, the deep 

 oceans. But we also need it in the littoral areas and in the atmos- 

 phere above them because this is our operating environment. This 

 is where we do our business. 



A full understanding of the maritime environment is absolutely 

 necessary for the success of any modern naval mission. 



The high-tech systems we use in the Navy today require sophisti- 

 cated and timely environmental information or they won't work. 

 And we need that information to support go or no-go decisions by 

 operators such as myself and for the precise use of weapons, so 

 that the weapons go where we want them to go, hit the target, and 

 do not cause collateral damage. 



I chair something called the CNO Executive Board. I'll call it a 

 CEB for the rest of today— CEB~but CNO Executive Board, which 

 overseas Navy policy and major Navy funding issues. In that 

 board, as Admiral Watkins will well remember, the CNO makes de- 

 cisions based on the best information he can get, which then be- 

 come recommendations within DOD to the Secretary of the Navy, 

 Secretary of Defense, and eventually, if approved, end up here. 



Last June, I convened such a special CEB, or CNO Executive 

 Board, to review our progress, potential and planning for naval 

 oceanography. That review reaffirmed just how important oceanog- 

 raphy is to naval operations, but it also did some other things. 



It highlighted how much more difficult our job in oceanography 

 is now, now that we are focusing on a much more complex environ- 

 ment, the littoral areas of the world. 



Here, where the land and the sea and the seafloor all interact, 

 changes in the environment are created on very much shorter time 

 scales than in the deep ocean areas. 



Our job is much more difficult now. 



Based on that CEB, on that board, I decided to do the following 

 things. 



One, to increase federal, academic and industrial partnership. 

 Not to talk about increasing them, but to increase them. 



