pensive, special projects may be needed in the nondefense budget ; this 
will be particularly true if projects for deep sea submersibles and 
instrumentation improvements are not funded as part of the Navy’s 
effort. 
Strong arguments might be made for intermittently implementing 
even some of the more marginal instrumentation or engineering under- 
takings if: (1) It were deemed in the national interest to maintain 
more or less intact existing “systems engineering groups,” in the aero- 
space, electronic, and similar defense industries; and (2) at some time 
these industries were to experience temporary, cyclic reductions in 
defense demand. Only temporary, as differentiated from long-term 
reductions in defense demands would justify such consideration. The 
economic argument would be that the cost of these system-engineering 
groups would be relatively low when employed on oceanographic 
undertakings during periods of temporary displacement from their 
normal activities. Needless to say, there are many complex issues in- 
volved in such a decision, not the least of which would be differentiat- 
ing between temporary and long-term reductions in defense require- 
ments and evaluating the cost of transferring system-engineering 
talents from one activity to another and back again. 
An ad hoc character also surrounds decisions to invest in more ships 
for oceanography. As suggested elsewhere in this report, the major 
problem with regard to ship operations today appears to be funding 
of operating costs and allocating and combining use of ships for the 
needs of many small science projects. The budget projections pre- 
sented in table 7.4 are consistent with the suggestions elsewhere in this 
report that the present need is not so much for more ship-operating 
funds as for better coordination and efficiency in use of ships (see sec. 
10.6). The possibility should still be recognized that some upward ad- 
justment in the table 7.4 figures could be required to properly fund 
ship operations. Certainly, very strong arguments exist for avoiding 
the situation of the recent past in which ships were seemingly kept op- 
erating only at the expense of cutbacks in basic research budgets. 
A relatively modest budget in absolute terms seems to provide con- 
siderable scope for the orderly expansion of government-civilian ac- 
tivities in, on, and around the ocean. Such expansion, moreover, seems 
consistent with the development of basic oceanographic research, and 
academic support that is both feasible and not disproportionate to 
expected needs and development of other scientific fields. Finally, it 
is a budget that should meet major new needs for civilian ocean missions 
with a proper emphasis on expanded activities in particular sectors 
which appears to have the greatest potential for economic benefits. 
220-659 O—66—_4 65 
