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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.

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.

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.

Naval assets, large and small, spend months to years at sea exposed to considerable biofouling pressures. The Office of Naval Research's Biofouling Control program sponsors research to develop antifouling/fouling release coatings and the mechanics underlying such materials.

The Navy faces the complex task of efficiently managing diverse material streams, either generated as operational byproducts or at the end of their service life. The Office of Naval Research's Materials Treatment and Recovery program ensures their appropriate treatment and recovery.

The Office of Naval Research's Electrochemical Materials program is focused on developing a fundamental understanding of charge (electron and ion) storage, transport and transfer mechanisms, and applying that knowledge to inform the development of materials, materials architectures and devices that address Navy and Marine Corps application power and energy needs.

The Office of Naval Research's Extraordinary Materials for Extreme Conditions program aims to support basic and applied research efforts to design, discover and develop novel materials/structures with unique properties (Physical, Mechanical and Chemical etc.) for extreme operating conditions through employing traditional as well as novel - synthesis routes, processing, characterization techniques and modeling/simulation tools.

The Office of Naval Research's Structural Metals program emphasizes developing the fundamental understanding needed to discover, design, and produce high-performance structural metals.

The Office of Naval Research's Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning for Photonics, Power & Energy, Atmospherics, and Quantum Science program is focused on machine learning techniques that can be applied to photonics, power and energy, thermal management and controls, atmospherics, communication, and quantum science for improved naval capabilities.

The Office of Naval Research's Corrosion Science and Corrosion Control Technologies program has a primary focus to create a science-based understanding of corrosion through damage evolution mechanisms, develop corrosion-informed materials concepts, and evolve surface protection and modification sciences.