My 
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Figure 10. Artist’s concept of future diver- 
operated jackhammer. 
G. Mooring Systems, Buoys, and Surface Support 
Platforms 
In any underseas activity, surface support usu- 
ally is necessary to monitor and control, provide 
logistic support, render safety and rescue assist- 
ance, and serve as a local terminus of operations. 
In the future submerged support will become more 
frequent. Small moored systems classified as buoys 
have a long history as navigation aids. Use of 
stationary large surface vessels, barges, and plat- 
forms for commercial, scientific, and defense 
purposes is increasing. 
Moored buoys also have collected and trans- 
mitted environmental information from selected 
ocean areas. Study of the feasibility of ocean 
data buoys has lead to formation of a Coast Guard 
project office to develop a National Data Buoy 
System. Unmanned moored data buoy networks 
may be deployed over deep ocean and continental 
shelf areas to measure automatically environ- 
mental parameters under, on, and above the water 
surface and to transmit the information ashore for 
timely use in understanding and predicting the 
marine environment. 
Highly stable ocean platforms like FLIP and 
SPAR have been designed and constructed by the 
U.S. Navy in conjunction with oceanographic 
institutions to collect environmental data. 
Requirements for improved mooring and posi- 
tioning of floating installations will continue to 
increase. Larger surface vessels and platforms, 
offshore airports, harbor facilities, mobile break- 
waters, and multipurpose floating island concepts 
depend largely on improved mooring and position- 
ing systems. 
1. Mooring Systems and Buoys 
a. Current Situation Open water mooring of 
vessels and platforms is the traditional method for 
stationing at sea. Anchor and cable systems are 
used to moor buoys, dredges, pipelaying barges, 
semi-submersible oil rigs, and drilling vessels. Brute 
force mooring techniques have evolved for shallow 
water locations, exemplified by the heavy sinkers 
and chain moorings used by the Coast Guard for 
navigational buoys (Figure 11). Excessive weights 
Figure 11. Typical massive anchor and chain 
for mooring navigational buoys in shallow 
water. (Coast Guard photo) 
VI-S1 
