411 



Sperry Rand , United Aircraft, Aerojet- General, etc. In effect, these submarines 

 are highly- efficient machines, employing considerable automation. In the last 

 five years, we have spent less than $50 million on research and development for 

 sea lift and sea transport, while spending over a billion dollars for air lift and 

 air transport. Systems equipment, made possible by the development of nuclear 

 submarines, can be applied to surface ships--both military and merchant marine. 

 In addition, we can automate this surface shipping to effect crew reduction, with 

 increased efficiency. 



With the U.S. merchant fleet deteriorating -- and, way down the totem pole 

 compared to the merchant fleets of other nations, the country faces a tremendous 

 need to modernize its surface Navy, as well as to strengthen its underseas fleet. 

 We believe we are on the brink of an era of shipbuilding of very advanced and 

 specialized vessels, both military and commercial, including surface effect 

 ships, gas-turbine-powered ships, nuclear-powered destroyers, missile ships 

 and specialized logistics ships. In fact, the fiscal 1970 defense budget, as sub- 

 mitted, contains $2. 4 billion for 19 new ships including a nuclear-po'wered 

 carrier, three fast nuclear attack submarines, a nuclear-powered missile ship, 

 five ultramodern destroyers, and 19 conversions, including six Polaris sub- 

 marines to carry the new Poseidon missile, successor to the Polaris. The 

 pressure is rising in Congress to start modernizing the Navy and the Merchant 

 Marine. * 



UNDERWATER HABITATS 



Sealab III 



The tragic death of Berry Louis Cannon, a civilian electronics engineer 

 from Panama City, Florida, last February 17th, while working on the continental 

 shelf 600 feet beneath the Pacific Ocean on the first day of the Navy's scheduled 

 but delayed 60-day "Man-in- the-Sea" experiment, received wide attention in the 

 press. The Sealab III experiment to test a man's ability to live and work for long 

 periods at great depths had reportedly been plagued with trouble for months. Back 

 in November, the personnel transport capsule, used to transfer aquanauts to the 

 undersea habitat from the surface under pressure, was accidentally flooded which 

 forced a two-month delay in the placement of the Sealab on the sea bottom to conn- 

 mence the experiment. 



Mr. Cannon apparently died of a cardiac arrest induced by carbon dionide 

 poisoning from a faulty breathing apparatus which is now being investigated by the 

 Navy, lie had gone down to repair a leak of helium gas used in the breathing atmos- 

 phere inside the vessel. It was decided to raise the habitat to the surface, not 

 because of Mr. Cannon s death, but because enough helium was not available on the 

 site to keep up with the increasing rate of the leak which had. reached some 10, 000 

 cubic feet per hour at the time of the decision to raise it. Failure to keep the 

 vessel pressurized undoubtedly would have resulted in flooding and disastrous 

 damage to the whole rig. According to the Navy, it may take three or four months 



