70 



Two, to help start a National Oceanographic Facilities Council 

 where we, the Navy, would play an important role because of our 

 resources and because of the importance of the data. 



To maintain a Navy survey fleet of no less than eight ships. We 

 had 12. We were going to be smaller. Once George Davis and I and 

 my other advisers looked at the problem, we said that in our alloca- 

 tion of resources, eight was the bottom line, or we wouldn't do a 

 good job and our war-fighting missions would then suffer. 



So eight is the number we settled upon. And we have taken ac- 

 tion to make that possible. 



We said — I said— that we would develop new ways of collecting 

 and processing data more quickly. You heard the witnesses that 

 went before me plead for that, and we need to do that, too, not only 

 to share with them, but for our own purposes in defense. 



To stay in the forefront of large-scale computer capability. That's 

 important to the Navy and to any military for lots of reasons, but 

 particularly here, where we're dealing with a much more complex 

 environment now as we get closer to land and need the ability to 

 deal with that and understand it. 



To establish some real, not discuss them, but establish some real 

 ocean areas as natural laboratories, to test new ideas and tech- 

 nologies in the areas that we are concerned about. 



So we establish some test areas and then try to extrapolate that 

 to other areas of the world. 



Very importantly, I decided that in my budget recommendations 

 from here on out, while I'm the chief, to keep our ocean research 

 funding to at least its current level, to not succumb to the tempta- 

 tion to salami-slice it down along with everything else. 



And to re-establish Navy-fiinded research chairs at appropriate 

 oceanography and academic institutions to improve our ties with 

 those institutions on an everyday basis. 



My written statement outlines the structure of our ocean re- 

 search activities and our operational oceanography program. But 

 this morning, I'd like to focus on only one thing that came out of 

 that CEB, and that is the partnerships because the very people 

 that we are forming these partnerships with are here today. 



The idea of partnerships is not new to the Navy and it's not new 

 to Navy oceanography. All aspects of our oceans program involve 

 cooperative efforts. To do otherwise would be to waste the govern- 

 ment's money and to miss opportunities to know about things we 

 must know about. 



The overwhelming majority of the environmental data we use on 

 a daily basis to support our operations comes from national and 

 international civil organizations. Most people would think it was 

 just the opposite, that we collected most of the data on our own. 



That is not the case. 



In return, though, because we do collect a lot of data, over 90 

 percent of the Navy-collected data is made available to the public, 

 much of it in real time. 



Let me say that again. 



Most of our information comes from elsewhere and almost all our 

 information goes back in return. But not all, and that of course is 

 a subject we'll want to talk about. 



