decrease in the future and will include a more widespread range of 
problems than it currently does. 
Search and Recovery Exploration. Loss of the Thresher in 1963 
and the recent search for the lost nuclear weapon in the Mediter- 
ranean off the Spanish coast cannot be regarded as insignificant, iso- 
lated incidents in long-term plans for national security. A continu- 
ing requirement will be seeking, identifying, and retrieving objects 
related to national defense from the ocean floor. These objects can 
be grouped roughly as follows: 
1. Disabled submersibles with survivors. 
2. Weapon system components, instruments, or data packages. 
3. Hardware, recovery of which is based on economic consid- 
erations or diagnostic needs. 
4. Debris, recovery of which is required for diagnostic pur- 
poses. 
When life is at stake, it is essential to move quickly and to mo- 
bilize men and equipment at the site of the incident. In view of the 
sensitive nature of many of these tasks, the military research-recovery 
mission must be assigned to the Navy. 
In order to carry out these missions the Navy should create a spe- 
cially trained task force to cope with deep sea recovery. It must be 
continually on call and highly mobile so that the requisite force to 
initiate search operations can be assembled almost anywhere in the 
world within 24 hours. Technology required by this task force exists 
only in part and will have to be developed by the Navy in the next 
several years. In time the civilian sector will need some of this tech- 
nology and eventually perhaps will conduct search and retrieval 
activities. Notwithstanding, the Panel recommends that all ocean 
search-and-recovery missions related in any way to national security 
be the responsibility of the Navy. 
5.3. THE NAVY’S OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM 
The Navy’s oceanographic program excluding the one-time ship- 
construction appropriation of a nuclear-powered deep-ocean engineer- 
ing vehicle has expanded from $120 million in fiscal year 1965 to $141 
million in fiscal year 1966 and to $205 million for fiscal year 1967. 
Although the program has been subdivided in many different ways, it 
can for the purposes of this report be divided into: 
(a) Basic research and education; 
(6) Research and development for undersea weapons and sen- 
sors; 
(c) Mapping and charting: 
(d) Undersea technology; 
