85 



Mr. Weldon. Thank you, Admiral Boorda, for your statement. 

 Admiral Gaffiiey? 



STATEMENT OF REAR ADMIRAL PAUL G. GAFFNEY, II, USN 

 COMMANDER, NAVAL METEOROLOGICAL AND OCEANO- 

 GRAPHIC COMMAND, STENNIS SPACE CENTER, MISSISSIPPI 



Admiral Gaffney. Distinguished chairmen and members, good 

 morning. 



It is an honor to appear before you, to join the distinguished 

 panel you have assembled, and to know that the future of the na- 

 tional oceanographic capability has such strong interest. 



I too have prepared a testimony which I have submitted for the 

 record, and if you agree, I propose to take just a few minutes to 

 punctuate a few of its points. 



First, so you know who I am, I am charged with execution of the 

 operational half of the Navy's Oceanography Program. My job is to 

 continually, and in real time, characterize and predict the maritime 

 battlespace. 



We collect data globally. We process it into useful information 

 and distribute it in many forms to Navy and other operating forces. 



Our effort is global and our people are all over the world today, 

 almost any place you can imagine. But my headquarters, happily, 

 is on the gulf coast of Mississippi, just two miles from the Louisi- 

 ana border and I'm smack dab in the middle of Congressman Gene 

 Taylor's district, and I'm really pleased that he's here today to sup- 

 port us. 



You have heard, or you will hear, a great deal about ocean re- 

 search and development today. I don't conduct or manage any. But 

 I use more of its successes than probably anyone else you'll hear 

 from. So I am probably the strongest proponent of Nav>'^- and other 

 agency-sponsored ocean science than anyone you have met. 



I exist not because the Navy has a keen interest in oceanography 

 for oceanography's sake. Or because we have a federal charter in 

 oceanography. I exist, rather, because the Navy has made the deci- 

 sion that it requires comprehensive oceanographic information to 

 be able to operate safely and effectively wherever it needs to on 

 this planet. 



That Navy decision, reaffirmed each budget cycle, has accumu- 

 lated for us, and for the nation, a substantial capability. 



Over the past year and a half or so, I have taken a strong posi- 

 tion on partnership opportunities and their value for three inter- 

 related reasons. 



The first, we in the Navy face complex technical challenges each 

 day. Today, that challenge is to quickly gain skill in characterizing 

 the littoral environment, without losing the deep ocean capabilities 

 that took us 50 years to accomplish. 



We need new ideas as we shift from scales of hundreds of miles 

 and days to scales of tens of meters and minutes. Partnering with 

 scientists from industry, academia and other agencies who have re- 

 lated challenges, but may look at them from other viewpoints, will 

 help me address the micro-scale oceanography that affects naval 

 expeditionary warfare. 



In a sense, partnering helps me ensure that naval oceanography 

 has peripheral vision. 



