undersea technology program. The Sea Bed (vol. 4) report recom- 
mended a substantial Navy program of several hundred million dol- 
lars’ expenditure over the next several years in this area. The Panel 
recommends a significant increase over the present $2 million a year 
in Navy expenditures. 
Shortly after the loss of the Thresher the Navy convened a board 
to evaluate and ascertain the Navy’s ocean capabilities specifically with 
regard tosubmarinerescue. After a year-long study this group (Deep 
Submergence Systems Review Group) recommended establishment of 
a 5-year program having four basic areas, costing about $332 million. 
These four categories were specified for the Navy’s concentrated effort: 
1. Submarine location, escape and rescue; 
2. Deep-ocean, small-object location and recovery ; 
3. Increased salvage capability ; 
4, Extended capabilities of man as a free swimmer to perform 
useful work in the ocean environment to his physiological limits. 
As a result of these recommendations the Navy formed a special 
group called the Deep Submergence Systems Project which was to 
implement these capabilities and enable the Navy to have worldwide 
operational capabilities by 1969. This group, initially placed within 
the Navy’s special project office, was recently made a separate CNM- 
designated project in order to focus the Navy’s effort on exploration 
of oceanic depth. An additional task for this new group was man- 
agement of the nuclear powered oceanographic vehicle (NR-1). The 
accomplishment of the four specific tasks initially given this group 
has been delayed in part because of funding problems. This year’s 
budgeting for the prototype rescue vessel is approximately $314 mil- 
lion short of the amount required; this difference is attributable to 
the low estimated cost at the onset of the program. This vehicle, now 
stripped of all significant search-and-recovery capability, will give us 
limited capability by the end of 1968 to rescue men from disabled sub- 
marines at their collapse depth. A full complement of six vehicles in 
1970 will provide worldwide rescue capability. There exists today no 
demonstrated, operational capability to rescue personnel from sub- 
marines beyond a depth of 600 feet; this leaves a depth gap with no 
capability to rescue and no capability to rescue from under ice. 
Search-and-recovery capability regarding small objects has suf- 
fered the most severe cutback. Initial recommendations to the Navy 
provided a capability to locate and recover small objects over 98 per- 
cent of the ocean floor (20,000 feet) by 1970. A worldwide operational 
capability in this field will require highly sophisticated, deep-diving 
search-and-recovery vehicles, supporting research and development 
and instrumentation. The experience off Spain in the recovery of the 
nuclear weapon illustrate the problems in the fields of acoustic detec- 
tion and imaging, underwater navigation and marking devices and 
36 
