III. MARITIME DEVELOPMENT 

 The Ocean Engineering Effort 



In transmitting the FY 1966 National Ocean- 

 ographic Program plan to the Congress, President 

 Johnson stated: 



"We are looking forward to a period where 

 our investment in ocean research may bear 

 fruit in terms of faster and more comfortable 

 transportation, more highly developed ex- 

 ploitation of our marine mineral and fisheries 

 resources, increased pollution control, more 

 accurate prediction of storms and tides that 

 endanger life and property, and the strength- 

 ening of our national defense." 

 The Program identified ocean engineering as 

 an area of special emphasis, and indicated that 

 agency programs contributing to this effort would 

 be included in the FY 1967 program document. 

 Ciurent emphasis on ocean engineering re- 

 search and development stems fiom recognition 

 by scientists and engineers that new techniques 

 must be developed for scientific and industrial 

 exploration and exploitation and for strength- 

 ening of our national defense, in and on the sea. 

 Scientists wishing to perform research in the 

 ocean must use an engineering approach to insine 

 successful completion of their projects. For 

 example, repeatable sampling of the ocean bot- 

 tom is in itself an engineering problem of some 

 magnitude, involving accurate navigation, control 

 over sampling procedures, and reliable recovery 

 techniques. 



This year's program has been extrapolated back 

 two fiscal years for purposes of acciuate ac- 

 cotinting and rational analysis of program growth 

 in ocean engineering. Excluding the reprogram- 

 ming of FY 1965 Defense and AEC funds for 

 development of the Navy's long-endurance, 

 nuclear-powered vehicle, NR-1, the ocean engi- 

 neering effort identified by ICO in the FY 1967 

 Program has nearly doubled since FY 1965. This 

 reflects growing recognition in the Federal 

 government of the important role of ocean 

 technolog)' in achieving the objectives of the 

 National Oceanographic Program. A large pro- 

 portion of these funds have and will continue 

 to go into industrial development contracts. 

 Techniques and hardware requirements derived 

 from these contracts ha\e substantiallv increased 



the undersea technology capabilities of American 

 industry. The present ocean engineering effort of 

 the ICO is directed toward enhancing the Nation's 

 ocean engineering capability in: 



1. Structural and Civil Engineeri7ig — The Ocean 

 Engineering Program of the Army Corps of 

 Engineers (including the Coastal Engineering 

 Research Center) consists mainly of design studies 

 and experiments aimed at improving capabilities 

 in (a) shoreline erosion control, (b) prevention of 

 coastal flooding and destruction from storms and 

 hurricanes, and (c) improvement and maintenance 

 of ship channels and harbors in the coastal area. 



2. Deep Sea Recovetj Systetns — Two years ago it 

 became evident that our undersea search and 

 recovery capability had not developed sufficiently 

 to meet new operational demands. An extensive 

 program of systems development for submarine 

 location, escape and rescue, and object recovery, 

 was assigned to the Na\y's Special Projects Office 

 based on their past experience in the de\'elopment 

 of the Fleet Ballistic Missile Weapon Svstem. 

 Engineering techniques derived from this major 

 effort will be of significant value to other projects 

 in the ocean engineering program. 



3. Man in the Sea (biomedical research and 

 undersea habitation systems) — This effort is closely 

 associated with the Deep Sea Recovery System in 

 that it will provide the capability to send men into 

 depths of up to 1 ,000 feet with relatively simple life 

 support systems. The ultimate goal of this pro- 

 gram is to allow man to work efficiently at high 

 ambient pressures. Since working at depth re- 

 quires prolonged exposure at sea, a parallel effort 

 is directed to the development of undersea 

 habitation to provide living and storage facilities 

 for divers. 



4. Undersea Research Vehicles — Many agencies 

 have expressed interest in obtaining URVs for 

 exploration and engineering purposes and several 

 have found it profitable to rent available com- 

 mercial URVs. Evaluation of existing vehicles 

 will be undertaken by the Navy. The Navy, as 

 part of their FY 1967 Program, will develop and 

 build two vehicles for imdersea operations. 



5. Resource Development — T\\'k effort is charac- 

 terized bv the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 



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