By Emelie Rutherford
A top naval scientist said yesterday that while he is pleased funding for early-stage science in the Navy has increased under Defense Secretary Robert Gates, he would like to see more resources for initial applied research efforts.
Walter Jones, director of the Office of Naval Research (ONR), told a defense industry crowd in Arlington, Va., that his office has boded well under defense leaders who understand that longer-term research efforts are an important part of ONR’s work.
“We’re very fortunate to have a chief of naval operations in Adm. (Gary) Roughead who really understands that we not only have to worry about the sailors and the Marines in the field now, but we have to worry about those 20, 25 years down the road,” Jones said at the American Society of Naval Engineers Advanced Naval Propulsion Symposium.
Jones said Roughead at a staff meeting said, “I don’t want this same group to have to sit here 20 years from now and say, ‘Why didn’t they address the energy needs of the Navy, Marine Corps back then?'”
A full 40 percent of ONR’s portfolio is focused “down the road,” Jones said, dedicated to Discovery and Innovation (D&I), which is then split into basic research (6.1 funding) and the early stages of applied research (6.2 funding).
Basic research funding also increased in fiscal year 2009, thanks to Gates, Jones said.
Gates “grew very concerned about what he was seeing in the emergence of scientists and engineers in this country,” he said. “And so he decided one of his legacies would be, ‘Let’s bump up our funding for defense basic research.'”
Still, Jones said he would like to see more 6.2 funding for the early applied research in the budget.
“I have a really good basic research program, (and) I’ve got a great FNC (Future Naval Capabilities) program where we take things to the field when they’re ready; what I wish had more of was something in the middle, to mature those basic research technologies and take them further down the road,” Jones said.
The ONR director, still, said the office is doing well and it’s funding is “very stable compared to other Navy organizations.”
ONR spends money on three primary areas: D&I, FNCs, and Innovative Naval Prototypes.