Book Description

In FY 1990, Congress directed the Secretary of the Navy to commission a study by the National Academy of Sciences for the production of an integrated technology plan for the evolution of aircraft carriers in the first half of the twenty-first century. The House-Senate conferees emphasized "that the product of this study is to be a technology plan for the evolution of sea bases for the most efficient and economical accommodation of tactical air power in the first half of the twenty-first century". Based on this broad charter of evaluating sea bases, an examination of the floating ocean platform concept was included in the study. The floating ocean platform is a generic description of a large, relatively stationary or slowly mobile, platform that can be positioned in most areas of the ocean, and can serve a variety of purposes. The present report was the author's input to the study. It was based on technical analyses, literature reviews and surveys, and discussions/visits with the main groups and organizations involved in developing the floating ocean platform. All discussion material was unclassified, as are the contents of this report. All the external inputs and discussions, too numerous to mention, made this report possible, and are greatly appreciated. The first part of this report is the summary narrative that was submitted by the author to the Technology Group of the study. The second part is the viewgraphs that were presented to the Technology Group by the author on 12 February 1991. The third part is a selected bibliography of studies on the floating ocean platform over the past two decades, with over three thousand references identified.