Science, Environment and Development Group

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Thursday, 6 November 2003
Science, Salt Water, Submarines and Symbiosis: Doing R&D with the Navy
Leader: Robert Frosch, Senior Research Fellow, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and former Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research and Development
Guest Speaker: Richard Pittenger, Vice President for Marine Operations Directorate, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and former Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy
11:45 am - 2:00 pm, Perkins Room (E-415), 4th Floor, Eliot Building, KSG (Map)
Lunch will be served

Biography:

Richard Pittenger is Vice President for Marine Operations at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). He joined the WHOI staff following a distinguished 37-year career in the U.S. Navy, retiring as a Rear Admiral. His many posts included: Oceanographer of the Navy; Director, Antisubmarine Warfare Division; Chief of Staff, U.S. Naval Forces (Europe); Deputy Commander, Eastern Atlantic forces, (London, England); and several commands at sea including command of a minesweeper, a frigate, and a destroyer squadron. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and of the Naval War College, and has a Master of Science in Physics (Acoustics) from the Naval Postgraduate School. For further information: CV of RAdm Pittenger or http://www.whoi.edu/WHOI/SciTechDir/richard_f_pittenger.html

Presentation slides:

Frosch, Robert A. "Science, Salt Water, Submarines and Symbiosis: Doing R&D with the Navy." PowerPoint presentation from Knowledge for Development Seminar, 6 November 2003, Center for International Development, Harvard University.

Frosch, Robert A. "Science, Salt Water, Submarines and Symbiosis: Doing R&D with the Navy." PowerPoint presentation from the discussion portion of the Knowledge for Development Seminar, 6 November 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, 6 November 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 remark

Additional background documents:

Those interested in some of the technical background of the events and practices to be discussed may wish to look at these two papers, both of which may be understood without equations.

Ewing, Maurice, and J. Lamar Worzel. 1948. “Long-Range Sound Transmission.” Excerpts from Propagation of Sound in the Ocean, Geological Society of America Memoir 27 (pp. 1, 11, 12, 13; figs. 3, 5, 6, 1, 19). New York: Geological Society of America.

This work involves reception of sound from an explosion, at distances up to 1000 miles, where both the source and the receiver are at a depth of about 4000 feet. Signals were made by causing a 4-lb. charge of TNT to explode at about 4000-foot depth.

Frosch, Robert A. 1964. "Underwater Sound: Deep-Ocean Propagation." Science 146(3646): 889-894.

The subject of underwater sound lies at the intersection of acoustics and oceanography, and the particular flavor of this branch of science arises from the necessity of continually considering the properties of the environment which provide the conditions for acoustics. Every underwater acoustician must try to be something of an oceanographer, and many oceanographers are finding a knowledge of acoustics advantageous.

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. 2003. "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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