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Research, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) was founded in 1946 

 to continue the partnership between the scientific community and 

 the Navy that demonstrated great value to the nation in World War 

 II. This year marks ONR's 50^ anniversary and it was recently 

 reorganized to manage a fully integrated science and technology 

 program, including a growing cooperation with industry and process 

 manufacturing technology. ONR manages the transition from the 

 long-range vision of fundamental scientific research, through 

 additional development, to testing the feasibility of applications 

 for Naval operations. ONR balances Navy requirements with 

 emerging opportunities offered by the scientific community. ONR's 

 ocean science and technology activities provide a test bed for 

 high risk, innovative approaches that later find their way into 

 Navy systems and operations -- and into civilian applications as 

 well . 



ONR ensures access for Navy to the newest science and 

 technology developments and future expertise for the nation. 

 Examples in the area of oceanography include acoustics, coastal 

 oceanography, remote sensing, numerical prediction, marine 

 meteorology, and, most recently, ocean optics. 



Nav>" s operational oceanography program provides critical 

 tactical environmental information -- from the seafloor to the 

 upper atmosphere -- to U.S. military forces throughout the world, 

 '•'.eteorology and oceanography (METOC) together describe and predict 

 the most changeable aspects of the marine environment. U.S. civil 

 agencies concentrate primarily on the U.S. and its territories, 

 but Nav>' requires timely, accurate forecasts worldwide to support 

 the full spectrum of Fleet operations, wherever and whenever the 

 Fleet operates. Navy large-scale supercomputer models, which 

 analyze and predict changes in both the oceans and atmosphere each 

 day, serve as the basis for military global forecasts and 

 predictions. On-scene support is delivered by forward -deployed 

 Navy oceanographers, who tailor data and products for local use. 

 Some of this data is also inserted directly into command and 

 control systems to support automated "tactical decision aids" for 

 planning and optimizing sensor and weapons employment. 



In the area of mapping, charting, and geodesy, the Naval 

 oceanography community works closely with the Defense Mapping 

 Agency (DMA) . Na->.^ collects survey data for the nautical charting 

 efforts of DMA throughout the world, and both work together with 

 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 



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