Science, Salt Water, Submarines and Symbiosis

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Science, Salt Water, Submarines and Symbiosis
Knowledge for Development Seminar, Center for
International Development Kennedy School of
Government, Harvard University November 6, 2003

• Doing RD with the Navy
• Robert A. Frosch
• Part II Practice
• Nov 6, 2003

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Submarine Warfare in WWII

• Sonar
• Periscope detecting Radar
• HF/DF and Doenitz mistake
• A close shave anyway

3
The Navys Worries after WWII

• Won the submarine war, but close!
• Late German submarine developments (eg
  snorkeling) very worrisome
• What will nuclear submarines mean?
• What will the Soviets do?
• Will there be true, quiet submarines?
• How can we deal with this?

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Underwater Sound during and after WWII

• Afternoon effect, the bathythermograph (BT)...
• Ewing and Worzel, GSA Mem. 27
• Long range very low frequency underwater sound (
  0 -3 octaves below A 440)
• REALLY long range 6 lb TNT 3000mi
• probably (later confirmed) gt10,000 mi
• Wartime research by cooperation

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• In July 1943 Ewing wrote...to the Bureau of
  Ships, Navy Department, proposing this long-range
  transmission as a system of communications. In
  January 1944 the Underwater Design Section of the
  Bureau of Ships approved tests . by the Woods
  Hole Oceanographic Institution and the US Navy
  Underwater Sound Laboratory at New London, Conn,
  the USS Saluda and the SC 665 were assigned for
  these experiments. The services of.and most of
  theequipment were lent by the Naval Ordnance
  Laboratory, and the remaining equipment was
  assembled at Woods Hole. The operational
  arrangements were made by the US Navy Underwater
  Sound Laboratory. The ships arrived on station
  ready to work on March 22, 1944. - Ewing, M.,
  GSA Mem. 27, p. 3

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Underwater sound (contd)

• Convergence zones
• SOFAR, LOFAR, etc
• Ted Hunt and an ocean an hour
• ambient noise
• wind, waves
• animals
• ships

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The Navys Response to its Worries

• Science and ONR
• SOSUS (Project Jezebel)
• Project Julie (made passive buoys active)
• Hartwell Report
• Hudson Labs (Project Michael) (Pupin)
• Do the oceanographic science of low frequency
  underwater sound for anti-submarine warfare.

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The ONR way of Science I

• Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
• Roger Bacon, Novum Organum, 1620
• Weve got questions you figure out what science
  to do, and how.
• Program officers as (rotating) peers
• Experienced, educated, Naval Officers
• Scientists comfortable with the Navy
• some were recent ex-naval officers

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The ONR way of Science II

• The investigators Club
• The relaxed were all in this together style
• Creating an epistemic community!
• Mutual acculturation
• Mix and match (in the same room, or ship)
• Naval officer experience
• University research (SIO, WHOI, MIT)
• Navy lab research (NRL, USL, NEL, DTMB)
• Industrial contractor research (BTL, Raytheon)
• FFRDCs (Draper, IDA) and Private consultants

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The ONR way of Science III

• Hey, I was talking to.,who has an interesting
  idea, would you call him/her?
• Advisory oversight
• Hudson The Brooks Committee
• Ad hoc committees for particular purposes
• Informal peer visits, sometimes with ONR staff
• NRAC
• NAS/NRC The Undersea Warfare Committee
• (later the Naval Studies Board)

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Hudson Labs Experiences I

• Theoretical Prediction Ray tracing to guide
  SOSUS
• for BTL, Western Electric
• Coherence of U/W sound in the ocean
• How long can an array be at low frequency?
• (gt 1500 mi., Eleuthera to Sable Island)
• Where does ambient noise come from?
• Whats its spectrum? Its angular distribution?

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Hudson Labs Experiences II

• Will internal waves interfere with sound?
• What can be done in shallow water?
• Can you build an active version that will get
  echoes at 100mi? (Third convergence zone)
• Project Artemis (Roman goddess of the hunt)
• (Project Diana was taken)
• Can you come to DC Thu? Were getting some guys
  together to talk about

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Hudson Labs Experiences III

• USS Alleghany (ATA 179)
• Lt (SG) Queeg commanding
• Project Medea (1955)
• 5 Ships Mix and match in the Norwegian Sea
• USNS J. Willard Gibbs
• The Undersea Warfare RD Planning Council
• Mix and match
• Search for the SSN Thresher

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Another DoD Example ARPA

• We cant do it for everything, but if someone
  calls a program officer before noon with a great
  new idea, we can usually get them authorization
  to start spending money on the idea by the close
  of business the same day.
• Bernie Korenblit
• ARPA Procurement Officer

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And, as ASNRD

• Working with the Admiralty
• Intra-service rivalries
• Inter-service rivalries
• Working with DDRE Staff
• AsstSecDef for Systems Analysis Staff
• Gordon Hamilton and the loss of SSN Scorpion
• Alvin and Palomares
• The weekly RD luncheon
• The tale of the three mathematicians
• Does everyone need to know what their work can be
  used for?

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Finally

• Hudson Labs, ARPA, ASNRD, NASA, GM
• Success in making science work for a customers
  purposes always has the same name
• SYMBIOSIS

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Symbiosis Some Ingredients

• Reasonable mutual respect
• scientists and customers -gt
• Conversation -gt Mutual acculturation -gt
• A reasonably clear agreed-upon purpose -gt
• A working community a club

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Symbiosis More Ingredients

• Facilities and appropriate for task
• May be a lot, or not
• Enough, but not too much, bureaucratic support
• External advisory/oversight system
• And always LISTEN!
• But be careful to think about what you hear