tracts with universities and industry will continue to bo controlled by the technical services i.e., Ordnance, Air Corps, Chemical Corps—as in the past, b u t the division of responsibility for various projects will be subject t o t h e division's approval. Gen. Dwight 1). Eisenhower, when he established this new division in April, laid down t h e following five guiding policies of the organization:
Cloyd Heck
Marvin
Muj. (sf'Ji. Henry
S. Aunt rid
War Department Research and Development A L LKC.GIN, A s s o c i a t e E d i t o r
First of a series.
W-OPJ.D
S u c c e e d i n g a r l i c l e s w i l l d e s c r i b e p r o g r a m s of t h e A r m y t e c h n i c a l services
W a r I I hits convinced the military authorities thai the future of our military strength is dependent upon i h e achievements and discoveries of our .scientists. Already the weapons of this war are obsolete and present research and engineering programs in t h e fields of atomic energy, radar, guided missiles, and b a c teriological warfare are certain to revolutionize future strategy and tactics. The War D e p a r t m e n t realizes t h a t to keep t h e Army equal or superior to a n y other military force in the world the field of scientific a n d technological development must he fully^ exploited, and that this can be accomplished only b y close integration of civilian a n d military talent in pen cot ime. The responsibility for achieving this integration h a s been consolidated and organized under the War Department G e n eral Staff as the Research and Development Division, which operates as an e q u a l with t h e other U G " divisions such as I n telligence, Operations, and Supply. The director, M a j . Gen. H e m y S. Aurand, h a s complete responsibility for t h e application of natural scientific resources to t h e solution of military problems. H e is the adviser to t h e Secretary of W a r a n d the Chief of Staff on all War D e p a r t m e n t m a t t e r s relating t o research and development. He h a s over-all responsibility for the initiation, allocation, coordination, a n d progress of research and development programs, demonstration of new or improved weapons, military equipment a n d tech-
2760
niques of their employment t o the using services, and the mobilization of the scientific effort for carrying forward this research and development program. Gen. Aurand, a West Pointer, is a former ordnance officer and g r a d u a t e of the Army W a r College and Army Industrial College. I n the years prior t o the w a r he assisted i n the design and construction of Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md., a n d later took charge of the development work at S a n d y Hook Proving Ground. He has been ordnance officer of the Philippines and also t h e Fifth Corps Area. I n t h e 30's Gen. Aurand prepared an Ordnance Field Manual, acted as. instructor a t various army schools, and was in charge of t h e technical group at Picatinny Arsenal. During World War IT he was director of the I n t e r n a t i o n a l Division, H e a d q u a r t e r s , Army Service Forces; Comm a n d i n g General of t h e Sixth Service C o m m a n d ; D e p u t y Chief of Ordnance, Communications Zone, European T h e a t e r of Operations; Commanding General, N o r m a n d y Base Section; Commanding General, Army Service Forces in the China Theater; a n d Commanding General, Africa-Middle E a s t T h e a t e r . T h e Research a n d Development Division is essentially a coordinating and policy-forming group. T h e operation of military research a n d development establishments, such as arsenals, laboratories, and proving grounds, and the letting of research a n d development con-
CHEMICAL
1. T h e A r m y must have civilian assistance in military planning as well as for t h e production of weapons. 2. Scientists and industrialists m u s t b e given the greatest possible freedom t o carry out their research. 3. T h e possibility of utilizing some of our industrial a n d technological resources as organic p a r t s of o u r military structure in t i m e of emergency should be carefully examined. 4. Within t h e Army we must separate responsibility for research a n d development from the functions of procurement, purchase, storage, and distribution. 5. Officers of all arms a n d services must become fully aware of t he a d v a n t a g e s which the A r m y can derive from the close integration of civilian talent with military plans and developments. Guided b y these principles, the organization is now proceeding to establish a working team of a r m y officers and scientists. T h e first move t o give civilian scientists an active p a r t in t h e program was t h e appointment, of Cloyd H e c k Marvin as d e p u t y director for research. D r . Marvin, who is president of George Washington University, Washington, D . C , will be the voice for t h e civilian scientists in t h e a r m y research program, acting as adviser to t h e W a r D e p a r t m e n t a n d liaison with scientists prominent in t h e various fields of science. Dr. M a r v i n h a d a prominent part before and during t h e w a r in t h e d e velopment of t h e a t o m b o m b . President of George Washington University since 1927, lie p r o m o t e d development of nuclear physics which led t o t h e splitting of t h e a t o m by installing research studies t h e r e d u r i n g the early 30\s. T h e position is for one year and it will be held b y top-flight scientists from various fields with different experience a n d background; even different geographic locations will b e given consideration. A civilian panel of o u t s t a n d i n g scientists a n d engineers, representing both t h e n a t u r a l a n d social sciences, is being created. Initially this will b e composed of 75 specialists i n various fields, appointed for o n e year. There will b e no meetings of t h e members, b u t problems will be forw a r d e d t o t h e a p p r o p r i a t e specialists. T h e panel member m a y select his special c o m m i t t e e from o t h e r members of t h e panel or from scientists i n his field n o t included i n t h e panel. Gen. Aurand feels t h a t m o s t can be accomplished b y perm i t t i n g these specialists t o operate in the manner they think best. Civilian scientists a r e also being utilized within t h e division, in full- or part-time positions. M a n y , such as H . T . Wcnsel, physicist; D. M . Delo, scientific personnel
AND
ENGINEERING
NEWS
specialist ; and P. S. Siple, hiogeographer, formerly a member of the Ityrd antarctic expedition, arc employed on a full-time civil service status. Part-time consultants from industry and universities to aid in many problems are also being employed. The division is contracting with George Washington University to furnish scientific personnel with special scientific skills. Scientific personnel, however, cannot solve all the research and development problems of the Array, since they are not military strategists and cannot anticipate all the problems encountered by the Army during war. On the other hand mibtary men cannot always visualize the military possibilities of many scientific achievements. To coordinate the knowledge of these two fields a development group, composed of military men, has been set up under the direction of Brig. Gen. E. S. Hoag. This group, from one end, will present the user's problems to the scientists and on the other hand take the scientific developments to the tacticians and strategists and see if they can be of value. Further to accomplish the mission of scientific cooperation the Scientific Liaison Group has been formed. Contact will be kept with scientific and engineering societies, universities, and research laboratories to exchange information and views. An additional duty of the Scientific Liaison Group is to supervise the declassification and passing on to the Publication Board, Department of Commerce, of information on government-sponsored research and development or information obtained from enemy sources which would be of value to science and industiy. During the war many research projects duplicated each other to a certain extent. Since the end of the war, the services have continued work on projects to meet their own needs. For example, both Ordnance and the Air Corps arc carrying on work with guided missiles. Often problems which one group is working out have already been solved by the other group. The division is now making every effort to place the responsibility for a program under one service or the other, and Gen. Aurand states that duplication of research projects is being eliminated rapidly, and mairy unimportant or "deadwood" programs are being canceled. The number
The Pentagon, of projects has been reduced from 5,500 to approximately 4,400. This does not indicate a curtailment in research, hut a concentration of effort. There is not only duplication of effort within the Army itself, but many high priority projects are also being duplicated by the Navy. The Army has two methods of coordinating its programs with the Navy. The first is to have the technical services deal directly with their counterpart in the Nav3r. Should no successful arrangement be worked out, the coordination is worked out by the Joint Research and Development Board consisting of two army and two navy officers, all of high rank, and ( the chairman, Vannevar Bush, head of the Office of Scientific Research and Development. This superboard authorized by both the Secretaries of War and the Navy has the power to allocate the research project to the Army or Navy and eliminate much of the interservice rivalry. • The Army is spending during this fiscal year $281,500,000 for research and development. The largest part of these
Left. Col. E. A. II o u t h G a it y Chief, Scientific Liaison Group. Right. Brig. Cert. E. S. Hoag, in charge of the D e v e lop merit C roup
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1946
Washing ton funds will be spent on development work at army technical centers and through industrial development contracts. Basic research at universities and research institutes will consume approximately S70,000,000. The contracts for research and development are made by the individual technical brandies. The funds allotted to these brandies are as follows: Quartermaster Service, Army $ 2,500,000 Army Air Forces lSo.500,000 Transportation Service, Army 1,000,000 Medical & Hospital Dept.r Army 3,500,000 Signal Service, Army 25,000,000 Engineer Service, Army 6,000,000 Ordnance Service & Supplies. Armv 52,000,000 Chemical Corps, Army 6,000,000 Total
S2S 1,500,000
The Research and Development Divi- sion, set up under the existing "temporary War Powers Act, cannot operate as the Navy's Office of Naval Researcli since it does not have Congressional approval. When the war powers are revoked by Congress the Army's research program will be governed by procurement regulations, in so far as funds and patents are concerned. The Army does not desire a return to the old method of competitive bidding on research operations. Although the Army is now spending huge sums of money for fundamental research, it would prefer that this research be done outside of the War Department by some such organization as the proposed National Science Foundation. Gen. Aurand states that "the Army can't keep science in uniform and would prefer that civilian scientists accomplish this research through an outside organization and tell them about it".
