95 



POLAEIS/PO'SEIDON since their inception, will continue. The next 

 most urgent and critical oceanographic operational support will con- 

 tinue to be applied to naval problems in antisubmarine warfare. The 

 Antisubmarine Warfare Prediction Service (ASWEPS) now becom- 

 ing operational will act as a seaborne service for the hunter-killer 

 groups by providing environmental data in the detail and timeliness 

 needed for tactical operations. In addition, ASWEPS will support 

 long-range shore-based ASW patrol aircraft. 



The worldwide marine geophysical survey program begun in fiscal 

 year 1966 is also continuing into 1968. These surveys, conducted under 

 Navy contract with two commercial geophysical companies, will, when 

 completed, have covered 16 million square nautical miles, or 15 per- 

 cent of the total ocean. Data on oceanographic conditions existing in 

 deep water masses and at the water/bottom interface, needed to opti- 

 mize the effective operational employment of the newly developed 

 sonars, are being collected. 



Long-range sound propagation is bein^ studied, both by operational 

 surveys and by research in the ocean science program. Noises in the 

 sea can be heard in some areas for great distances with considerable 

 regularity. It is of utmost importance to understand such propaga- 

 tion. The comprehensive program to deal with this problem will con- 

 tinue and the development of instrumentation and techniques in its 

 support will be pursued. 



I wish to mention also one project which, though not developed as an 

 oceanographic project, will make a major contribution to the national 

 oceanographic program as well as to our military capability directly. 

 This is the Navy-developed satellite navigation system which is now 

 operational and has increased the available accuracy of position for 

 -ships at sea by an order of magnitude. The Vice President has just 

 made this system available to the U.S. academic and private industrial 

 •commmiities. 



I have reviewed briefly the major program areas of Navy involve- 

 ment, in the context of their applicability to military and certain non- 

 military needs. We in the Navy were particularly pleased to note the 

 general endorsement by the President's Science Advisory Committee, 

 in their report last summer, of much of the Navy effort in ocean science 

 and engineering, and the concurrence in our firm belief that the na- 

 tional security needs for oceanography are, and will continue to be, a 

 dominant force in shaping the Federal program for the next 5 to 10 

 years. 



We support the President's "lead agency" concept for coordination 

 of efforts which are of substantial multiagency interest, and we recog- 

 nize the importance to the national good of the Navy support of marine 

 technology. Each of our major Navy projects offers several potential 

 applications beyond their direct military objectives : deep submergence 

 search and rescue vehicle technology provides the basis for any vehicle 

 end use — mining, fishing, salvage, mechanical work, research, and data 

 collection ; sonar technology can lead to considerably greater efficiency 

 for future generations of commercial fishermen at a time when the 

 problem of feeding the world population will have increased ; man-in- 

 the-sea may provide a key to greater and more rapid development and 

 exploitation of all our underwater resources, especially those on the 

 Continental Shelf. 



