Ve taking into account steaming times, time required for laying, and drift and set of the currents, were prepared by the project for each shot in which i¢ participated. They were then forwarded to the Naval Task Group for approval and incorporation into their event plan. Project personnel accompanied the ships on their missions to advise and assist in the handling of samples and employment of project eyuipment. 2.3.2 Rehearsals Arrangements were made with the Task Force to schedule ship and aircraft support for pre-operation rehearsals for the following purposes: (a) To indoctrinate personnel in the process of laying and retrieving buoys and rafts and in the handling equipment at sea, (bo) and mowuting of project To test the radio identification and location systems to be used. (c) To obtain infcrmation on current velocities in the ocean about the two test atolls. (¢) To test radio transmission from the buoys for compatability with other trensmissions used throughout the Task Force. In the rehearsals 4 limited number of buoys were laid around the atoll. Location and recovery operations were sturted the following day. These rehearsals furnished valuable information regerdcing various phases of the operction and acquainted the crews of the ships with the problens to be solved. successfully. Under normal conditions the radio transmitter opersted It usually could be detected on the ship's direction- finding gear out to 1% or 20 miles and greatly facilitated locating the buoys. drift. The ocean currents were found to vary greztly both as to set and (See Appendix H.) It became apparent thut the ability to mount the sea phase would be strongly influenced by the sea state. The hand-~ ling problem aboard ship, the cerformance of the buoys and transmitters at sea, and the detection and homing problem all were adversely affected as the sea state increesed, It wes concluded that a full array could be placed as planned only if the seas were relutively calm, and that the cut-off point at which buoy operations must be discontinued would be a sea state of four. It was further concluded thet operations in seas approachin.; state four vould result in damege and loss of equipment in some degree, as well as extending the time required to carry out all phases, _ The rehearsals showed that the loss rate of buoys would probably be greater than unticipated. Thus in the planning and conduct of the sea phase for euch shot careful consider:tion had to be given to conser~ vation of equinoment for the remaining shots in the series. 2.3.3 Shot Participation At the start of CASTLE, 124 buoys completely equinped with radio- transmitters and sampling cevices were available. Twenty of these uniis less radiotransmitters were used to augment the sampling program et | cvikini following the destruction of Project 2.54 equipment and facilities after Shot 1. The disposition of the buoys during the sea phase