INTRODUCTION 



OBJECTIVE OF STUDY 



The installation of offensive and defensive weapon systems on the 

 sea floor will require a capacity for lowering, raising, and accurately 

 positioning heavy, negatively buoyant loads. Loads envisioned are largely 

 speculative at the present time but could conceivably consist of large 

 concrete foundation blocks, nuclear reactor power stations, and structural 

 steel frameworks, as well as a host of construction work subsystems: bottom 

 crawling survey vehicles, dredgers and trenchers, and bottom-based load 

 handling equipment, to name but a few. 



The handling of buoyant loads or slightly negative, massive loads is 

 not the subject of this report. This type of load — the prime example of 

 which is the one atmosphere manned module or station — will most likely 

 be implanted by the now thoroughly discussed winch-down technique. 

 Safety for the human occupants dictates this implantment mode. 



The authors used the Deep Ocean Technology Project Technical 

 Development Plan (DOT TDP) as a guide in conceptualizing and evaluating 

 candidate lifting, transporting, and positioning subsystems. The DOT TDP 

 requirements are summarized in Table 1 . 



In the course of the study, the authors concluded that some of the 

 TDP requirements such as the rate of lift, for example, should be relaxed 

 somewhat while others, particularly the incidence of dynamic stresses in the 

 load suspension system, were perhaps overstated. The authors, however, did 

 not question nor modify the requirements for a 20- to 100-ton lift capability 

 by FY-73 and a 400- to 600-ton lift capability by FY-77. Statements and 

 conclusions concerning the shape, bulk, and weight of future loads are 

 necessarily qualified by the present uncertainty as to their configuration. 



