direction. The contractor has determined the optimal design to consist 
of steel decking with prestressed concrete supporting structure config- 
ured to provide buoyancy. 
@ The RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California, under the aegis 
of PROJECT AIR FORCE, conducted a comparison investigation of Methods 
for Improving U.S. Capability to Project Ground Forces to Southwest Asia 
in the 1990s. The RAND study results were briefed to the U.S. Air 
Force, the Military Airlift Command, and to Defense Department personnel 
by P.M. Dadant in February 1983. RAND concluded in their study that the 
most favorable system for projecting ground forces ashore included a 
Mobile Operational Large Island (MOLI) as a floating airbase for accept- 
ing large C5A military transport aircraft. 
@ Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA), previously 
known as ARPA, has entertained a prevailing interest over the years in 
buoyant ocean structures. One of DARPA's earlier projects (1970) was an 
Engineering Analysis of the Feasibility of a Stable Floating Platform, 
performed by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at La Jolla. The study 
was instigated by Dr. William Nierenberg, then Director of Scripps and a 
respected advisor to the Department of Defense on scientific and oceano- 
graphic matters. 
