Science, Environment and Development Group

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Thursday, 30 October 2003
Science, Salt Water, Submarines and Symbiosis: Doing R&D with the Navy
Robert Frosch, Senior Research Fellow, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and former Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research and Development
11:45 am - 2:00 pm, Perkins Room (E-415), 4th Floor, Eliot Building, KSG (Map)
Lunch will be served

Biography:

Robert A. Frosch is a theoretical physicist by education (AB, Columbia College, '47 and PhD, Columbia University, '52). He conducted research in ocean acoustics at Columbia and later served as Director for Nuclear Test Detection, and Deputy Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in the Department of Defense, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research and Development (ASNR&D), Assistant Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Associate Director for Applied Oceanography of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Administrator of NASA, President of the American Association of Engineering Societies (AAES), and Vice President of General Motors Corporation (GM) in 1993 before joining the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Foreign Member of the UK Royal Academy of Engineering, and a fellow or member of a number of professional societies.

Presentation slides:

Frosch, Robert A. "Science, Salt Water, Submarines and Symbiosis: Doing R&D with the Navy." PowerPoint presentation from Knowledge for Development Seminar, 30 October 2003, Center for International Development, Harvard University.

Pittenger, Richard. "Science, Salt Water, Submarines and Symbiosis: Doing R&D with the Navy." PowerPoint presentation from Knowledge for Development Seminar, 30 October 2003, Center for International Development, Harvard University.

Background documents:

Cote, Owen Reid, Jr. 1996. "Theory and the Sources of Military Doctrine." Chapter 2 in The Politics of Innovative Military Doctrine: The U.S. Navy and Fleet Ballistic Missiles. PhD Thesis 1996-25 (pp. 41-94). Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Political Science, http://theses.mit.edu/Dienst/UI/2.0/Describe/0018.mit.theses%2f1996-25?abstract=.

This chapter outlines the political science theory of military innovation.

Cote, Owen R., Jr. 2003. The Third Battle: Innovation in the U.S. Navy's Silent Cold War Struggle with Soviet Submarines. Newport Paper Number (pp. 22-26, 38-40, 41-52, 89-91)16. Newport, RI: Naval War College Press, http://www.nwc.navy.mil/press/npapers/np16/NewportPaper16.pdf.

These pages outline the history of the post WWII challenges in anti-submarine warfare, and the Navy's responses to them, including the scientific and technical background. It concludes with some theoretical remarks.

Further readings:

The Department of Defense Programming, Planning, and Budgeting System (PPBS): Online Tutorial

Davis, M. Thomas. 2000. "Changing the Pentagon's Planning, Programming and Budgeting System: Phase 2 Report." Business Executives for National Security (BENS), http://www.bens.org/images/PPBS2000.pdf.

Department of Defense. "The Defense Acquisition System." DoD Directive Number 5000.1. 12 May 2003.

These three materials listed above are not intended to be read closely, but to be looked at to give a flavor of the Pentagon system for planning. (You should page through the PPBS online tutorial to get the flavor.) In a sense, this is a bureaucratic theory of innovation.

Frosch, Robert A. 1996. "The Customer for R&D Is Always Wrong!" Research*Technology Management 39(November/December): 22-27.

This paper gives some of the speaker's somewhat different views of the theory of R&D intended for use, informed by practice.

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