Development of Computer Technology 1 29 



As time went on, we actually rented two IBM 7090's for the Space Surveil- 

 lance System. They were still on Station until recently over near the mess hall. 



Then came along, in late 1959, the POLARIS Ballistic Missile Program foi 

 the Navy, the. Fleet Ballistic Missile Program. Having had experience in ex- 

 terior ballistics, we had some expertise to go into that program, which required 

 a lot of computation. So the NORC was used for the Space Program, the 

 POLARIS Program, and war games. 



As we moved into the 1960's, there was a new program being developed 

 which is now the POSEIDON, and the computing required there was, I guess, 

 an order of magnitude over what we required on the POLARIS Program 

 because it was a more complex projectile and eventually had multiple reentry 

 vehicle warheads on it which necessitated a lot more computation and faster 

 computers. 



About that time, we got the IBM STRETCH computer. They built about 

 eight copies of it; we had one, the Weather Bureau had one, and I've forgotten 

 where the others were. We had one here for about 10 years before we got our 

 CDC 6700. About two-thirds of the work load on those computers was for the 

 Fleet Ballistic Missile Program, and then we kept getting further involved in the 

 Transit Navigation Satellite Program. Those two programs essentially used up 

 about 75 percent of our computing time. As time went on, those kept drawing 

 more and more. Today, we have the TRIDENT Program, which is a follow-on 

 to POSEIDON, and we have a larger responsibility in the Space Program — the 

 satellite geodesy. Again, today, that comprises about 75 percentof our comput- 

 ing requirements. The other 25 percent is for exterior ballistics tables for 

 rockets, mines, and bombs. And then we do a small amount of work for the 

 other departments at Dahlgren. 



Besides yourself, and you mentioned Bill Burke, who were some of the key people involved 

 in building up the computation efforts at Dahlgren? 



I think there's one more key person — Dr. Cohen, * who is still here. I can't say 

 enough about Dr. Cohen's important contributions. Other key contributors 

 were Bob Ryland, now in the Electronics Systems Department, Gene Gleissner, 

 now Head of the Applied Mathematics Department at the David Taylor R&D 

 Laboratory, and John Walker, who recently retired. Dr. Bramble was the key 

 person, originally. He interviewed and hired me at Harvard in 1946 or 1947. 

 Anyway, he was working for Dahlgren at that time. Before that, he was teaching 

 at the Naval Academy Postgraduate School in Annapolis, and they persuaded 

 him to come here and take over this department. At that time, they were just 



*Dr. Charles J. Cohen came to Dahlgren in 1944 as a Lieutenant (jg) %vith the Navy. He returned as 

 a civilian mathematician in 1947 and is presently Associate Director for Research in the Warfare 

 Analysis Department. 



