PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE 101 



gram, initiated in 1959, combined with that of the National 

 Science Foundation, meets the needs of the oceanographic 

 scientists both in Navy laboratories and private institutions 

 with adequate ships of medium size. It appears that in the 

 future, aside from presently planned construction, the need for 

 additional ships will be for more large ones to handle the massive 

 experimental equipment and auxiliary devices; and for addi- 

 tional smaller ones to meet specialized tasks. This latter category 

 is particularly crucial from the viewpoint of the expenditures 

 of research dollars for ship operation costs. 



Major advances also have been made in recent years in the 

 use of aircraft to obtain operational oceanographic information. 

 With the development of air-droppable bathythermographs, 

 the aircraft is becoming capable of providing information about 

 subsurface layers as well as about the surface. Further develop- 

 ments of sensors and techniques for obtaining data from such 

 platforms are underway. These developments are also a logical 

 step toward the use of satellites to obtain oceanographic ob- 

 servations on a global basis. Satellite navigation systems al- 

 ready have made an impact on ocean-science research, and the 

 use of satellites for telemetering oceanographic data from 

 buoy systems is being evaluated. The Navy has been assigned 

 the responsibility of determining the feasibility of deriving 

 oceanographic measurements from space for the National 

 Aeronautics and Space Administration. The results to date 

 show promise for satellites as platforms from which to obtain 

 information about the ocean environment. 



Specialized and oftentimes complex instruments will be 

 needed for the future ocean-science programs. Shipboard com- 

 puters, underwater vehicles, long-range telemetering ocean- 

 ographic buoys, improved echo sounders, and a host of new 

 measurement tools will be required to gain a thorough under- 

 standing of oceans and their effects on naval operations. These 

 equipments are expensive in comparison to past investments, 

 but their potential payoff in terms of benefit to the Navy and 

 to the Federal Government warrants the expenditure. 



