The Ocean Engineering Program 



of the U.S. Navy 



Accomplishments and Prospects 



INTRODUCTION 

 BACKGROUND 



The Navy's daily use of the oceans requires its interests in ocean engi- 

 neering to be comprehensive and immediate. The Navy has performed sal- 

 vage missions since Revolutionary War days, and Navy environmental pre- 

 diction and charting predates the Civil War. Submarine development and 

 diving have been actively fostered by the Navy since before World War I. 

 Technological changes since World War II have extended Navy missions 

 from a surface or near-surface arena down into the depths of the ocean. 

 Increased numbers of longer range, deeper diving submarines have gener- 

 ated new requirements for underwater search, rescue, salvage, and con- 

 struction that did not exist ten years ago when the Navy purchased the 

 bathyscaph TRIESTE. This is the purpose of Navy ocean engineering: 

 to develop the vision and resources to produce the undersea capabilities 

 that are required now and will be required in the future. Operational 

 emergencies such as the loss of THRESHER and the Palomares bomb inci- 

 dent lent urgency and emphasis to existing programs in ocean engineering. 



Daily the nation is becoming more aware of its economic, social, and 

 defense interests that lie on our one million square miles of continental 

 shelf and our surrounding oceans. In 1966 the President's Science Advi- 

 sory Committee Report, "Effective Use of the Sea," was published con- 

 taining concrete recommendations for national, federal, and Navy pro- 

 grams in oceanography. In 1966 the National Council on Marine 

 Resources and Engineering Development was established to provide a 

 stronger policy and organizational framework and to give new momentum 

 to marine science activities. 



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