NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20418
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competencies and with regard for appropriate balance.
This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
This report and the committee were supported by a contract with the Office of Naval Research, Department of the Navy. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsor.
Cover art by Carrie Mallory. Ms. Mallory received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Cooper Union. She draws on the natural world and the effects of age on man-made objects for many of her themes. She has exhibited at a number of juried shows in the Northern Virginia area. The art for this cover was inspired by a pile of rusting objects in a shipyard at Lunenberg, Nova Scotia.
Copies of this report are available from Ocean Studies Board, National Research Council, 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20418.
Copyright 1996 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
COMMITTEE ON ALTERNATIVE USES OF NAVAL TECHNOLOGY
GERALD A. CANN (Chairman),
Senior Advisor to the Executive Office, Raytheon Company, Arlington, Virginia
MARY ALTALO,
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California
WILLIAM BERRY,
Applied Remote Technology, San Diego, California
CHARLES BLACK,
Mardela Corporation, Woodside, California
ANTHONY CALIO,
Hughes Information Technology Company, Reston, Virginia
EDWARD LISZKA,
Pennsylvania State University, State College
WILLIAM SILCOX,
Chevron Corporation (retired), Incline Village, Nevada
MALCOLM SPAULDING,
University of Rhode Island, Kingston
GLENN STONER,
University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Staff
ELIZABETH TURNER, Study Director
DAN WALKER, Program Officer
LAVONCYÉ MALLORY, Project Assistant
OCEAN STUDIES BOARD
WILLIAM MERRELL (Chairman),
The H. John Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment, Washington, D.C.
GERALD A. CANN, Senior Advisor to the Executive Office,
Raytheon Company, Arlington, Virginia
WILLIAM CURRY,
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
ELLEN DRUFFEL,
University of California, Irvine
RANA FINE,
University of Miami, Florida
JOHN E. FLIPSE,
Independent Consultant,
Georgetown, South Carolina
SUSAN HANNA,
Oregon State University, Corvallis
JOHN E. HOBBIE,
Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
EILEEN E. HOFMANN,
Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia
ROBERT B. GAGOSIAN,
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
ROBERT KNOX,
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California
LOUIS L. LANZEROTTI,
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey
JOHN MAGNUSON,
University of Wisconsin, Madison
B. GREGORY MITCHELL,
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California
ARTHUR NOWELL,
University of Washington, Seattle
TERRANCE J. QUINN,
University of Alaska, Fairbanks
C. BARRY RALEIGH,
University of Hawaii, Honolulu
JAMES P. RAY,
Shell Oil Company, Houston, Texas
PETER RHINES,
University of Washington, Seattle
BRIAN ROTHSCHILD,
University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
THOMAS C. ROYER,
University of Alaska, Fairbanks
LYNDA SHAPIRO,
University of Oregon, Charleston
SHARON SMITH,
University of Miami, Florida
PAUL STOFFA,
University of Texas, Austin
Staff
MARY HOPE KATSOUROS, Director
EDWARD R. URBAN, JR., Program Officer
DAN WALKER, Program Officer
ELIZABETH TURNER, Research Associate
MARY ENG, Administrative Associate
LORA TAYLOR, Senior Project Assistant
LAVONCYÉ MALLORY, Senior Secretary
HEATHER BLOUGH, Project Assistant
CURTIS TAYLOR, Office Assistant
COMMISSION ON GEOSCIENCES, ENVIRONMENT, AND RESOURCES
M. GORDON WOLMAN (Chairman),
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
PATRICK R. ATKINS,
Aluminum Company of America, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
JAMES P. BRUCE,
Canadian Climate Program Board, Ottawa, Ontario
WILLIAM L. FISHER,
University of Texas, Austin
GEORGE M. HORNBERGER,
University of Virginia, Charlottesville
DEBRA KNOPMAN,
Progressive Foundation, Washington, D.C.
PERRY L. MCCARTY,
Stanford University, California
JUDITH E. MCDOWELL,
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
S. GEORGE PHILANDER,
Princeton University, New Jersey
RAYMOND A. PRICE,
Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario
THOMAS C. SCHELLING,
University of Maryland, College Park
ELLEN SILBERGELD,
University of Maryland Medical School, Baltimore
STEVEN M. STANLEY,
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
VICTORIA J. TSCHINKEL,
Landers and Parsons, Tallahassee, Florida
Staff
STEPHEN RATTIEN, Executive Director
STEPHEN D. PARKER, Associate Executive Director
MORGAN GOPNIK, Assistant Executive Director
GREGORY SYMMES, Reports Officer
JAMES MALLORY, Administrative Officer
SANDI FITZPATRICK, Administrative Associate
SUSAN SHERWIN, Project Assistant
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Preface
As the United States adjusts to the end of the Cold War, global competitiveness is joining military preparedness as a national goal. The federal government is striving to achieve the proper balance between defense and domestic spending; consequently, greater emphasis is being placed on maximizing return on federal investment in research and development. Any activity that leads to more productive use of U.S. research dollars leads to a healthier economy and strengthens the national defense. The Department of the Navy is therefore exploring the nonmilitary benefits of naval technology. As discussed in a report of the National Research Council’s Ocean Studies Board (OSB) Oceanography in the Next Decade: Building New Partnerships:
Economic prosperity in a global marketplace depends increasingly on technical and scientific applications. There is concern about the ability of the United States to compete with Europe and Asia. Basic and applied research in the marine sciences and engineering is necessary to achieve and maintain a competitive position in a host of fields, including marine biotechnology, aquaculture, hydrocarbon and mineral exploration and production, maritime transportation, fisheries, treatment and disposal of waste, and freshwater extraction. (National Research Council, 1992a, p. 3-4)
Effective military use of the considerable scientific and engineering resources represented by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Department of the Navy, relies on adequate and timely transfer of research and technology to the fleet. To maximize the nonmilitary benefits of naval research, similar accomplishments must be achieved in domestic technology transfer.
To help ONR improve its technology transfer efforts, James DeCorpo, Director of the Ocean, Atmosphere, and Space Department of ONR, requested that the OSB review the status of technology research in ONR laboratories and recommend programs that would serve to meet the science and technology needs of the Navy, other agencies, industry, and academia. The OSB formed the Committee on Alternative Uses of Naval Technology in response to this request. The committee was further requested to produce a report detailing (1) how ONR now interacts with industry, (2) how those avenues of interaction may be improved, and (3) future areas of technology research that may be appropriate for ONR to pursue, which might have applications to interests outside the Navy. The committee did not discuss specific areas of basic research for ONR to pursue in the future (the OSB has provided such advice in more than 12 recent reports to ONR), but rather focused on establishing future technology needs of the nonmilitary industrial marine sector. This report, Expanding the Uses of Naval Ocean Science and Technology, offers advice that should lead to a more effective transfer of technology from ONR-sponsored scientists and laboratories to the nonmilitary marine sector. More effective use of U.S. defense research dollars could serve to strengthen scientific research, marine transportation, economic development, and global competitiveness.
WILLIAM MERRELL
Ocean Studies Board, Chairman