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The Ocean Battlespace Sensing Department explores science and technology in the ocean battlespace environment.

During a visit to San Diego for the U.S. Pacific Fleet-led Unmanned Integrated Battle Problem 21, Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Lorin Selby said America’s growing focus on autonomous capabilities is showing impressive results.

The Department of the Navy (DoN) is offering more than $10 million in funding opportunities to attract new small business partners and identify technology advances in the areas of autonomy, artificial intelligence, microelectronics, and command and control networks.

The Undersea Systems Focus Area addresses innovative affordable, persistent and stealthy undersea systems that leverage the asymmetric U.S. Navy advantage afforded by subsurface operations.​

A dynamic era in naval oceanography recently ended as the iconic Floating Instrument Platform — popularly known as FLIP — was officially retired from service. Built in 1962 with funding from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), FLIP helped generations of scientists and oceanographers better understand the mysteries of the sea, including internal waves, air-sea interaction and long-range sound propagation. Sadly, age and exorbitant life-extension costs resulted in the platform being disestablished. On Aug. 3, a solemn gathering of well-wishers watched as FLIP was towed, at sunset, to a dismantling and recycling facility. Last month, a formal good-bye ceremony was hosted by the Marine Physical Laboratory at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Though retired, FLIP will live on at Scripps. One of its booms (crane-like arms for suspending instruments) will be installed on the Scripps research pier in La Jolla and used to deploy instruments. Also, artifacts from the platform will be displayed in a permanent exhibit at Scripps’ Birch Aquarium.

The goal of the Office of Naval Research's Undersea Signal Processing program is to develop signal processing algorithms that improve the Navy's ability to detect, identify and locate submarines in shallow and deep ocean environments.

The Office of Naval Research's Power Electronics & Electromagnetism, Adaptive & Machinery Controls and Advanced Machinery Systems program supports the Navy’s interest in advanced naval power and energy systems science and technology, and autonomous technology.

Retired U.S. Navy Capt. Don Walsh, best known for his daring dive to the deepest spot on Earth, nearly 36,000 feet below the ocean’s surface, has died at age 92. Walsh was a co-pilot of the Trieste bathyscaphe, a deep submergence vehicle acquired by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in 1958. Two years later, on January 23, 1960, Walsh and Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard, son of the inventor of the bathyscaphe, became the first humans to descend into the Challenger Deep, located in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench. “ONR sponsored the Trieste, but it was then-Lt. Don Walsh who made the very daring decision to make the first descent into the deepest spot of the earth’s ocean. Walsh was a Navy officer, a submariner, an adventurer, and an oceanographer. To his family, we extend our deepest condolences and gratitude for allowing him to explore, and share his extraordinary experiences and knowledge with us,” said Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Kurt Rothenhaus.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has ended fiscal year 2023 with the highest rating from the Professional Services Council (PSC) for its outreach, transparency and thoroughness in acquisition forecasts. The Department of the Navy’s ranking on the PSC scorecard is a big change from previous years according to Ellen Simonoff, director, Office of Small Business Programs. She said last year the DoN pushed an initiative to get a higher ranking and succeeded, in part, by getting all of the Navy commands to have their long-range acquisition estimates correspond to each other in terms of how and what information was published.

The Office of Naval Research's Navy Undersea Research Program (NURP), in collaboration with the National Science Foundation, sponsors science and engineering graduate students pursuing thesis topics in core undersea weaponry technology areas.