are ii @ TEBE ‘ at ATION 0 UITED STATES ATOVIG BNERGY COMMISSION P Y Washington, D.C. December 19, 1951 — 3 TO FROM ‘ +: <L Captain J. T. Hayward, USN Colonel Li. F. Cooper, USAF Golonel K. E. Fields, Director, Division of uilitary Application ~ SUBJECT; JOINT STUDY GROUP AEC AND DEPART.ENT OF DEFENSE REF s (a) Letter of December 4, 1951,* from Colonel C. Ball to ir. Dean (bv) Letter of July 18, 1951% from Exec. Secy., MLC, to Chairman, AEC, Subjects Military Guidance in the Atomic Weapon Field 1. The following is furnished you for guidance in comection with reference (a) and the activities of the Joint Study Group. 2. It is clear that the organizations, facilities, and personnel working on problems of atomic weapons systems should be - . yO - ) . e- sion of responsibilitics now doveloving for doing this is believed a C ri : ; augmented. Our immediate problems are pressing, and those that will arise in the space of a few years will substantially increase our load. Increased amounts of fissionable materials then avail-— able will make practicable many additional applications of atomic weapons. It would appear that in a large measure many of these applications should be conceived and brought forward by various agencies of the Department of Defense. It should be emphasized that these applications must be integrated into a weavons system. Divito_bethe proper one, namely, tharesponsibslity for the devclopment * productionatomicwarheads and adaptation of warhcads to any 4 system shouldrestwiththe<%, and the ~~ larper responsibilitics for tiie Weapons system should rest with theDepartment of Defonse. . 3. It is necessary, in order to utilize most cffectively our combined capabilities in the atomic weapons ficld, that active steps be taken by the various services to encourage thinking and studies on nev: applications for atomic weapons. An excellent example of this was tho Project Alias study by the Navy. 4. The paragraphs below discuss the nature and scope of programs with specific tasks in which military assistance is contemplated by ae the AEC. tp ee It is recognized these are general in nature but it is belicved your group will be able to go into dctails concerning them and suggest methods of handling these problems satisfactory to both agoncies. & In reference (b) (MLC letter of July 18 to the AEC) there are various special applications that obviously fall into arcas of Department of Defense competence. These include: (1) Atomic depth charges for air, surface, and sub~ \ Secretariat Note ~ Circulated previously as ABC 4285/6. “Circulated previously as AKC 453. « 51 - ’ COPIEDINAE No wi a . Be ee