beyond the near-term state-of-the-art for high risk or low per- 

 formance components and materials. In addition, national require- 

 ments for the U. S, Great Lakes, estuaries and Arctic will be 

 investigated. 



INTRODUCTION 



In 1967 the U. S. Coast Guaird was selected by the National 

 Council on Marine Resources and Engineering Development to under- 

 take the research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) 

 necessary to develop the capability to implement National Data 

 Buoy (NDB) Systems. 



There is an urgent need for marine environmental data to 

 further improve our scientific knowledge of the atmosphere and 

 the oceans, depict their present state more accurately, and improve 

 predictions of their future state. Data buoys have been shown to 

 be cost effective eind have a significant capacity to acquire the 

 volume and quality of data required, within a variety of platforms 

 [References 1, 2, 3]. More recently, other national and inter- 

 national planning activities have stressed the need for a coordi- 

 nated data collection system utilizing buoys and other appropriate 

 platforms [References 4-9]. Another recent study, the Report of 

 the President's Commission on Marine Science, Engineering and 

 Resources, highlights a "pilot buoy network" as a national project 

 meriting "consideration for early implementation" [Reference lO]. 

 It identifies the Coast Guard as the agency to develop buoy 

 technology, develop and evaluate systems requirements, and take 

 the necessary technical and analytical steps leading to a national 

 capability to deploy NDB Systems. This paper summarizes the NDB 

 Development Project's planned program and first year of progress. 

 It should be emphasized that the program is in the conceptual 

 stage and is working with other Federal agencies, the scientific 

 community, interagency groups, users and the Congress to develop 

 a course of action that will meet national needs at the least 

 cost. 



PLANNED PROGRAM 



A fundamental development goal of the NDB Development Project 

 is to deploy pilot-buoy networks by 1975. The pilot buoy networks 

 will: 



...be deployed along the continental shelf and deep oceains 

 adjacent to the United States. 



...be used to assess the reliability eind effectiveness of 

 the prototype development. 



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