NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM—1965 
ment testing in local waters. It intends to provide 
engineering advice and assistance to agencies and 
activities on oceanographic instrumentation mat- 
ters, and to serve as a clearing house for informa- 
tion on the oceanographic instrumentation 
development program. 
Its budget, which is borne by the Navy, is 
expected to total approximately $30 million over 
a ten-year period. 
D. Oceanographic Forecasting Service 
The Navy has two environment and wave fore- 
casting programs which could conceivably lead 
to developments of interest to nonmilitary users. 
They are instrumented to handle on a fully auto- 
matic basis incoming bathythermograph and sea 
surface temperature observations and to issue 
charts of the depth of the upper isothermal layer 
and the surface temperature variation. The major 
limitation is the crudeness of the present data 
inputs so that its outputs are relatively unsophis- 
ticated, but improvements are continuing and they 
provide valuable supplements to the ASWEPS pro- 
gram, scheduled to become fully operational some- 
time after 1965. Standing for Anti-Submarine 
Warfare Environmental Prediction System, 
ASWEPS is intended to provide forecasts of a 
a large variety of oceanographic variables of 
particular significance to the operating forces. 
These variables will describe in considerable de- 
tail the ocean environment in at least the upper 
layers. It is hoped that enough information about 
the sensors, installations, prediction techniques, 
data processing know-how, and various automa- 
38 
471 
tion methods can be made available for the de- 
velopment of a parallel nonmilitary system, or that 
the Navy system can also serve some nonmilitary 
users on a not-to-interfere basis. 
Very approximate estimates of the cost of 
developing a world-wide ASWEPS system run 
about $3 million‘ annually for the R&D phase, 
totaling $20 million. Operating costs will run very 
nearly another $3 million a year thereafter.* 
E. Summary 
The oceanographic service of greatest magni- 
tude planned for the next decade is the Ocean 
Survey Program. It should contribute to the goals 
of all the agencies, the scientific community, and 
other special groups such as the fishing and mining 
industries. Of international importance, as is 
noted subsequently, it is expected to reflect about 
one-third of a planned international effort. Costs 
amount to approximately $240 million including 
the construction of 12 new ships. 
Other services whose growing importance is out 
of all proportion to their comparative small costs 
are the National Oceanographic Data Center and 
the Navy’s Oceanographic Instrumentation Cen- 
ter. 
The Navy's ASWEPS will provide an important 
capability to forecast oceanographic conditions 
for military purposes. The possibility of provid- 
ing some nonmilitary services or of establishing 
a nonmilitary counterpart is under consideration. 
*Not included fiscally in the National Oceanographic Program. 
