EXPLORATORY DEVELOPMENT LABORATORY BRANCH 1967 PROGRAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: NGA Records (Formerly NIMA)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79B00873A000800010032-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 18, 2012
• Sequence Number: 32
• Publication Date: May 20, 1966
• Content Type: MISC

Declassified and Approved ForRelease2012/10/18 : CIA-RDP79B00873A000800010032-1
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20 May 1966
(Revised 31 May 1966)
EXPLORATORY DEVELOPMENT LABORATORY BRANCH 1967 PROGRAM
The Mission:
The Laboratory Branch is charged with providing technical and
laboratory support for development activities. In addition to acting
as technical advisor, the Branch is expected to generate significant
scientific advances which affect the fundamental technological bases
for NPIC equipment development: It will continue to explore, define,
and advance the state-of-technology when considered pertinent to the
Center's development rationale. The Branch must supply specific
information regarding new areas of technology which can be exploited,
and assist in the technical aspects of the contractual implementation
of the subsequent development programs. The internal Laboratory
program should, in the final analysis, continually provide new insights
into the interrelation of the physical, optical, photographic and
human processes so that the basis for future development considerations
may be constantly updated.
Internal Branch Organization:
The Laboratory is organized into four distinct sections, only two
of which have been formalized at this writing: 1) Technical Services,
) Engineering and
ablished although
staffs. Until
.11 be served
red basis. For
2) Scientific Support, 3) Analytical Support, and 4
Fabrication. The last two have not been formally est
personnel are available to form part of the necessar
the Branch acquires more scientists, these sections
functionally by the available personnel on an as-req
purposes of clarifying the intended program in terms f projects, and
to indicate the placement of responsibility within th Branch
framework, it will be useful to define the services a d responsibilities
of these sections. _
Technical Services Section
The Technical Services Section will be responsible for providing
specialized services and laboratory investigations pertinent to this
Center's interests. These will include:
a. The provision of standards and testing services
in photometry, optics, and metrology. The section will
procure, develop where necessary, and maintain high-quality
standards for the evaluation of optical performance. The
section will maintain stocks of working standards and will
assist other Center elements in applying the appropriate
equipment and techniques to problems of performance testing.
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b. Experimental work on the application of new
materials, equipment and techniques to staff, Center, and
community problems which require and bring to bear the
specialized capabilities of the section members. The
orientation of this section's efforts along these lines will
point towards the investigation and initial exploitation
of ideas developed within the staff and Center. It will
tend to be more equipment-oriented than the other sections.
Proposal evaluation will be carried out when relevant to
this section's capabilities.
c. Provide technical assistance to.the proposed Test
and Evaluation Branch, as required, in the modification of
developmental equipment under test to insure the optimum
product performance and improvement.
d. Liaison with other groups in and out of the Center
who have related and/or complementary capabilities, the sum
of which can be brought to bear on problems of mutual
interest.
Scientific Support Section
The Scientific Support Section will be responsible for providing
specialized investigations and consultant services to the Plans and
Development Staff and the Center. These will include:
a. Studies and other types of investigations
relating to concept feasibility and general technological
exploration and exploitation to provide an understanding
of the physical and psycho-physical substrata underlying
the photographic exploitation process.
h. Where applicable to Center requirements, analytical
and experimental investigations to advance, define, and
explore the state-of-technology in optics, the photographic
process and related disciplines.
c. Technical information and advice on advanced
technical and technological problems relating to the
development of exploitation equipment. In this capacity it
serves to explain and translate the more advanced concepts
into ideas and discussions from which implementation by the
Development Branch can proceed. It shall also provide
technical representation for the Center in meetings,
committees, and similar associations requiring the specialized
knowledge and capability this section possesses.
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Analytical Support Section
Thi 's group will provide mathematical analysis in support of the
physicists and engineers in their assigned problems. It is intended
to expand the capabilities of the staff by providing new analytical
techniques, in simplifying the old, and in freeing the physicists and
engineers from the mathematical burdens which often tend to mitigate
a thorough pursuit of the significant physical aspects of the problem.
Additionally, the section will be responsible for maintaining a
computer-utilization capability for laboratory problems, and an
awareness of the state-of-technology in the general computer field
to provide the necessary expertise to the Development Branch.
Engineering and Fabrication Section
The group will provide an engineering design and, fabrication
capability for the laboratory, in support of its own experimental
investigations and to satisfy its requirements for highly specialized,
one-of-a-kind equipment.
Incoming projects are generally assigned according to the function
of the section, the availability of specialized manpower, and the
,immediate project requirements throughout the branch. While personnel
are generally assigned on a nearly permanent basis to a particular
section, the organization will remain sufficiently flexible to cut across
section lines and place the properly qualified personnel on a specific
problem when there are no clear-cut options for sectdional assignment.
All project assignments are issued by the Branch Chief, through his
Deputy: individual assignments within the projects re assigned
through the Section Chief, who remains responsible for the prosecution
and routine termination of the projects.
Project Designations:
Projects, which delve into scientific problems with any sort of
depth tend to elude definition of time limits and specific goals:
specification of termination times are nearly always impossible. If the
project is of a fundamental nature, it nearly always poses new questions
which require additional work, and so on. In recognition of this, the
Branch does not consider individual projects as separate entities, but
regards each as belonging to one of five major categories: therefore,
with the exception of projects received from outside this staff, there
are only five project numbers used, for purposes of Center reporting.
While these categories tend to follow along Section lines, there are
enough significant differences to warrant their inclusion here.
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