European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 16, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday August 16, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 9 Marine mammals Aid Navy research service emulating nature s designs by Norman Black a military writer Washington a the Navy still fascinated by nature s answer to underwater design is spending millions of dollars each year to study and train porpoises dolphins seals and whales. Many of the research programs Are classified and hidden irom Public View. But Navy officials say the studies Range from research on How the animals see hear and navigate to training programs in which Marine mammals Are used to recover objects from great Depths and to serve As underwater sentries. Moreover the Navy conducted a special Experiment last year in the Charleston s.c., Harbor in which porpoises were used to detect sea mines according to sources speaking on condition of anonymity. The test was considered highly successful because the mammals were Able to detect roughly 80 percent of the mines a rate that meets or exceeds the Navy s experience with various mechanical devices on source said. The test was pan of a program that focuses on the use of mammals for undersea surveillance and Detec Tion for object recovery purposes the source concluded. They Don t try to move them just find  Navy officials this past week declined to discuss the Experiment in Charleston. But the Navy has never made any secret of its research interest in Marine mammals said it. Cmdr. Bob Pritchard a spokesman at the Pentagon. When you consider the design of a porpoise nature s underwater design you find a capability to do things that we can t do ourselves. A lot of what we re doing is classified. But the ultimate goal is to replace the mammal with hardware and technology to do what they re doing. We continue to build on the amount of knowledge that we already  Pritchard said the service has never trained nor intends to train Marine mammals for any task that could result in intentional injury or death to the Ani  we would never use the mammals for any Type of Kamikaze attack he added. The Navy s budget indicates the service is re questing $5.4 million in fiscal 1987 the same amount being spent this year for the advanced Marine biological systems project. That program is described As training Marine mammals and devel we would never use the mammals for any Type of Kamikaze attack Bob Pritchard Oping associated hardware to identify those naval operations wherein the utilization of Marine Mam Mals is  the unclassified portion of the budget however is believed to represent Only a Small part of the Navy s Overall Effort. The sources say the service has never stopped pursuing training projects that Date to the Vietnam War when the Navy experimented in the use of dolphins and porpoises to detect underwater swim mers in Cam Ranh Bay. The sources meantime dismissed a recent published report suggesting the service was trying to train the mammals to locate and attach Limpet mines to enemy submarines. The publication defense week quoted an unidentified retired Navy official As saying the program had been dubbed tag a ship and involved teaching the mammals to attach a magnetic mine to a sub s Hull and then to flee the area before the mine went off. Some people May have talked about something like that but it s highly unlikely said one source. You could t Send a Dolphin out to do that unless you knew pretty much where the sub was. And if we know where the sub is we can already destroy  Pritchard agreed however the Navy has Success fully trained mammals to recover objects  As prac Tice torpedoes from great Depths. Sea Lions have dived to Depths of 750 feet to attach recovery lines and whales have been trained under a cold water Marine mammal program to do the same at Depths exceeding 1,000 feet. Aside from training the Navy says its veterinarians and scientists Are studying  things As the Way the mammals see hear and navigate nutrition require ments and reproduction cycles and the peculiarities of their physiology and what keeps them healthy in an undersea environment. Publicly the service says its research is divided into two phases exploratory and advanced. The former addresses generalized object recovery porpoise hydrodynamics and enhanced training methods the Navy said in a statement prepared in response to a reporter s queries. Advanced research carries out tasks dealing with behavioural engineering biologic system studies Ani Mal procurement health care and logistics and specialized instrumentation and training  the service declines to say How Many mammals it has on hand but says the research and training efforts have involved "106 mammals Over the put seven  the research is entered in san Diego at the Navy Ocean systems command but studies Are often per formed elsewhere. They be developed an effective system to transport them said one official. A photo Back Home again Earl Watkins 74, smiles while Balanc ing Carton on a railing at his new Home on Osage Avenue in Phila Delphia thursday. Watkins and his wife were one of the families whose Homes were destroyed in the fire fal lowing the bombing of the building housing the Radical group move in May 1985. The City rebuilt Many of the Homes that were destroyed. Eugene ore., judge oks air Force Tower project Washington not a Federal District judge in Eugene ore., ruled thursday that the air Force could go ahead with construction of a Tower there that is part of a National communications network designed to withstand nuclear  of the construction had argued that the presence of a Tower would increase the likelihood that Eugene would be a target. The opponents the demanded that the air Force first con duct an environmental assessment of the effects of  an attack both on Eugene and on the  judge James m. Burns rejected the demand for the assessment the Leader of an opposing group said an App Alfrom the ruling and a stay of construction would be sought. The Tower would be part of a National system the ground wave emergency network or Owen that is already under construction in Many pans of the  air Force spokesman at the Penta gon said thursday that 26 towers had been erected and he rejected the notion that they heightened the risk of attack. John o been an information specialist at Hanscom fab mass., which is the Headquarters of the electronics system division of the air Force said there s a weakness in our command control sys tems. This is pan of  Hanscom is primarily responsible for designing and building the military s communications and intelligence sys  Brien said effective deterrence required a communications system that could withstand the effects of an electrical disruption an electromagnetic pulse caused by the explosion of a nuclear device. The network a series of receiving stations and antennae sends Low frequency radio signals along Earth s surface. These Are less vulnerable to electromagnetic pulse than conventional communications because the signal does not travel High in the atmosphere. The system contributes to the mentality that nuclear War is survivable and winnable said Fay Kelle a spokesman for women s action for nuclear disarmament one of several groups that Are seeking the system s termination. O Brien said at least 56 towers would be needed just to Complete a thin line  beyond the 36-Tower system however a much larger network of 200to 300 towers has been proposed. The additional transmitters o Brien said would increase the system s survivability in the event of an attack. Cost estimates have varied As the project s size has been debated but Senate staff members say $200 million has so far been appropriated for it. The longer Range plan with its additional towers would Cost about $750 million. Each transmitter is a 299-foot-tall an Tenna with Copper wires stretched out like spokes beneath it. Both the number of towers and their size have drawn anti nuclear demonstrators. In Ament mass. Chico Calif. Mequon Wii. Eugene ore., and elsewhere the military has faced court action arid demonstrations Over the Gwen project. Lois Barber a director of Gwen said several members of Congress had pressed the air Force to share its reasons for erecting the towers with townspeople in districts where the antennae  those same members of Congress she added have shown Little enthusiasm for cancelling the program outright or significantly cutting Back its financing. Basically this has been billed As a communications system and what intelligent person is against better communications Barber said