trailers would be put on land in three positions and the diagnostics
could be turned back in;
ships
if Johnston Istand were to be used, one or possibly
In the event open sea testing is done all
two of the ships could be released.
ships would be required and since they must be loaded on the West Coast, Ogle
suggests that the latest date the ships should be available is |! February on
the West Coast.
Furthermore, as backup, the presently instrumented C130's
and the instrumentation on the drop plane will also be used.
Considering the
accuracy and reliability, the technical personnel rate the comparative desirability
of the several possiblities as: Christmas-very good; Johnston-moderate; and Open
Sea-poor.
The several diagnostics shots for which air drops are not desirable are as
follows for the reasons noted:
I.
7
‘not |. safe - alpha required.
If Christmas is available this
could be done on a balloon with alpha measurements; without Christmas, a shot
ship .is required.
2.
.
-approximately | Megaton-this experimental device is much to large to
airdrop.
.
3.
PINEX such that ah airdrop is not feasible
Gun-this requres telemetry and
and a shot ship is required.
4.
An LRL vulnerability shot which requires separate balloon sites for
vulnerability experiments.
The LASL
desired
‘a nuetron spectrum as a function of angle measurement is
which would benetit from placement on land so that spectrum, vulnerability,
and EM effects could be studied.
If an island cannot be obtained for this shot,
then the data obtained would be compromised and a shot ship would be needed.
6.
Spare shot ships are requested so that if there is trouble with some of the
above shots or if others become desirable,
perhaps two or three spare ships
would be available.
To address such questions as how to implace diagnostics gear on Liberty Ships or
whether
there are smaller vessels
which are seaworthy
but could be used for
either shot ships or for diagnostic ships, Ogle requests that the Navy Task
Group get together
accomplished.
immediately with H&N to determine how the aims can
be
It is noted that since some of the construction may be very
time consuming, a ship or more may have to be in the shipyard as early as
{| January and thus planning in a coordinated fashion must be done immediately.
In discussing the question of preparing for high altitude testing and noting
that Don Schuster will provide details on this later, several points are noted.
Two ships are noted as possibly being required as intermediate positions for
launching instrumentation rockets and they would have to be more stable than the
smaller ships discussed, perhaps destroyers.
Ogle does not suggest obtaining