a, CHAPTER | Summary of SFO Progress, 1947 to 1954 Santa Fe Operations fulfilled its mission assignments for the period July 1947 to January 1954. Atomic weapons of required efficiency, variety and utility were developed, produced and placed in stockpile in conformance with constantly expanding military requirements and approved schedules. New weapons of greater destructive power, of greater efficiency, and of at least equal variety and utility were in developmentprior to production or were clearly foreseen as a result of research. A major store of other knowledge of great value to other national programs, such as military utilization and civil defense, was obtained through SFO or SFO-related activity. + been Weapons-wise, the six and one-half year period encompassed the A-bombor fis- sion stage and concluded well beyond the threshold of the H-bomb or thermonuclear stage. History may refer to the period by its weapons, A-bomb and H-bomb. In the memory of SFO management it may well be characterized as the building period. It extended from the beginning to the essential completion of the job of building the organization, the physical plant, and the basic programs required for mission accomplish- ment. ‘ Weapons-wise and otherwise the final six months, July 1 through December 31, 1953, were a period of transition. As of July 1, management was already shifting from the phase of major stress on organizing and building to one of major stress on consolidating and tidying-up administration and operations. Midway in the period the direction of the implosion weapon program was reversed from added expansion to major retrenchment when the Military slashed its requirements for training and for stockpile. As the period closed, plans for one new high explosives plant and projected increases in facilities at two others had been cancelled and studies were under way to determine the degree of need for the remaining high explosives production facilities. Accompanying the cutback on implosion weapons was a military determination for concentration on thermo- nuclear weapons. As the period closed, plans were under way for achieving the sched- uled production, but largely through organizations and facilities already established during thermonuclear development. As in weapons, the final six months also brought major developments in other phases of Santa Fe Operations. Planning was well under way at the close of the period to adjust to the changes involved in bringing San Francisco Operations Office and the Livermore Laboratory into SFO, and to those involved in concentrating on development and production of thermonuclear weapons. ALOS Because of the tremendous gains made in the past six and one-half years, and the remarkable crystallization of a large development and production complex achieved since mid-1950, SFO had never before been so ready to meet expanded and urgent national requirements. Starting almost from scratch, without adequate tools to perform its mission, it had forged its tools and at the same time achieved its atomic weapons mission. Today its organizational structure and large plant complex is at once basically sound enough to stand the load of increased and new requirements, and flexible enough to adapt to changed circumstances. OOR/AID