environment, more abundant and accurate oceano- 
graphic data will be required, probably through 
greater use of submersible and advanced buoy 
technology. 
Active participation by industry in establishing 
and operating ranges benefits all marine activities. 
For example, detailed bottom survey measure- 
ments apply directly to ocean mining and to 
search and recovery. Equipment developed for 
range monitoring can be applied in large scale 
environmental monitoring and prediction. The 
wealth of experience accruing from installation, 
operation, and maintenance of various undersea 
systems will become part of the industrial base 
needed to achieve the recommended national goals 
in the oceans. 
D. Conclusions 
The necessity of complete and adequate testing 
to conquer a strange environment has been vividly 
demonstrated by aviation advancing into high 
altitude, supersonic, and space flight. The ocean 
environment is diff'cult and will require a vast 
array of test facilities to permit safe, orderly, and 
rapid progress. Prior operational experience has 
borne this out. Test facilities are a national 
resource as important as any other single factor in 
the advancement of marine technology. Insuffi- 
cient facilities already have and will continue to 
hamper the national ocean program. 
Equipment, instrumentation, and systems de- 
velopment are impeded seriously by a lack of 
environmental simulation facilities. Test tanks of 
two general types are needed to: (1) advance 
fundamental technology and prototype subsystem 
and component evaluation and (2) evaluate vehicle 
and system certification and effectiveness includ- 
ing man-machine interrelationships. The former 
category requires test tanks to simulate tempera- 
ture, salinity, and pressure cycles to great depths. 
The latter requires larger, integrated facilities 
permitting dynamic duplication of relevant para- 
meters. 
The forces of economic development, recrea- 
tion, and national security already have moved 
man into the sea; these forces will grow at an 
increasing rate. Manrated hyperbaric facilities are 
needed for medical and physiological research, 
swimmer and diver equipment research and devel- 
opment, training, operational work, and rescue. 
VI-82 
Facilities for physiological research, medical train- 
ing, equipment development, and saturation diver 
operational training are grossly inadequate. The 
limits of human diving endurance cannot be 
determined safely in situ; closely controlled labo- 
ratory simulation is required. There exists a major 
need for hyperbaric trained medical doctors. Fur- 
ther, amateur divers often preempt government 
facilities for emergency decompression, further 
intensifying the facility shortage. 
Extensively surveyed and instrumented in situ 
facilities and ranges are being developed. These 
facilities have special advantages because of their 
size and total environment reproduction. Much 
work remains, however, to complete range instru- 
mentation and provide such facilities with real 
operational capabilities. Although in theory the 
Navy’s ranges are available to civilian interests, 
they quite appropriately must serve Navy needs 
first, thereby intensifying the shortage of range 
facilities. 
Recommendations: 
A national facilities program should be estab- 
lished to (1) determine present and future needs, 
(2) develop and construct new facilities, (3) 
improve test scheduling, (4) maintain an in- 
ventory of national capabilities, (5) provide cri- 
teria to choose between in situ and simulation 
testing, and (6) establish a center of excellence in 
the technology of test tank and range design. The 
program’s responsibility should include conven- 
tional and hyperbaric test tanks and in situ 
facilities. Coast Guard efforts to develop diver 
rescue decompression tanks (including chambers 
capable of being airlifted) should be related to the 
program. 
Major efforts should be pursued to seek new 
and economical methods of simulation, including 
such possibilities as concrete and fiberglas tanks. 
Deep (2,000 to 20,000 foot) anechoic simulation 
technology does not exist and should receive 
special emphasis. If a breakthrough occurs, acous- 
tic and noise suppression efforts will be greatly 
enhanced through laboratory testing. 
A significant increase in tank and range test 
capabilities is basic to the U.S. undersea program. 
The importance of test facilities as a national 
resource cannot be overstated. 
