EIGnT
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
THURSDAY, OCTOBER, 19, 1967
EIGHT TIlE MICHIGAN DAILY THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1961
Wilioi
(Continued from Page 1)
Several times a year military
brass will fly in on special tran-
sports to inspect the entire Willow
Run installation.
The atmosphere is described as
frequently tense by some insiders.
Competition for military research
contracts is high. Project Michi-
gan, the mainstay of the opera-
tion is down to $2.5 million this
year from $3.5 several years. ago.
Like any office the facility has
its in-group jokes. "One of our
favorite jokes is to talk about the
non-military uses of the new ob-
servatory in Hawaii," says a Wil-
low Run staffer. "Publicly the of-
ficials talk about the peaceful uses
of the observatory. But everyone
knows its there for tracking IC-
BlM's and satellites."
Although WRL officials plead
ignorance on the matter, there is
informed speculation that the$4.3
million dollar observatory the Uni-
versity is staffing in Maui, Hawaii
will play a role in satellite warfare.
The defense department spon-
sored observatory may be used in
Run Labs:
the highly secretive spy satellite
business.
Currently the Air-Force is de-
veloping a top secret anti-satellite
system to knock enemy satellites
out of action undetected.
The idea is to use sophisticated
electronic devices to "bump" an
enemy. satellite (equipped with
cameras and eavesdropping gear)
out of action.
The new observatory will "track
the midcourse flights of . . . or-
biting satellites with advanced in-
frared sensing, measuring and rec-
ording devices," according to Pres-
ident Hatcher's 1963-64 Annual
Report.
Tracking the satellites would be
an integral part of the anti-satel-
lite system. And trade publications
sugest that the new Hawaiian ob-
sevatory could well be used, in that
manner.
Work at the Willow Run center
started in 1946 when the facility
was known as the Michigan Aero-
nautical Research Center. The
original work was done on adapt-
ing ballistic missiles for defense
purposes under Project Wizard.
In 1950 WRL worked in co-
operation with Boeing aircraft on
a new missile system to knock
out bomber aircraft called BOM-
ARC: Boeing Michigan Aeronau-
tical Research Center.
In 1953, the giant of all past
and present research, Project
Michigan was born and is still car-
ried on under their auspices.
Willis E. Groves, current head
of Project Michigan says the
basic purpose of Project Mich-
igan was to "build better spec-
tacles for our military" and that
it is primarily concerned with
radar and infrared research.
According to Robert L. Hess
who was director of Project
Michigan from 1962-65 when he
became director of the Highway
Research Institute, "Project Mich-
igan was the best investment ($70
million over the past 13 years)
the army ever made
The army was similarly im-
pressed with Hess's work and in
1964 awarded him the Outstand-
ing Civilian Service Medal for
his contributions as director of
Project Michigan, noting that he
had "succeeded in establishing
and maintaining the University
of Michigan asthe leading free
world authority in surveillance
technology." Hess says he was
shocked when he received the
award: "I had no idea they were
going to give me this, it was a
wonderful surprise."
The Willow Run center also
maintains three national clearing-
houses. One is the Ballistic Mis-
siles Radiation Center (BAMI-
RAC) ' which collects, analyzes
and disseminates information rel-
ative to ballistic missile radiation,
a subject important in develop-
ing a defense against such mis-
siles. BAMIRAC does significantl
technical research in this area.
An Infrared Information andl
Analysis center (IRIA) is now
in its 13th year and disseminates
information on infrared science
and technology. A third center
ilitary
now in its seventh year dissemi- concerned with "The detection of
nates information on "seismic chemical warfare agents using
detection of underground nuclear passive Lopair techniques." In this
explosions." project, which expires in January
Although WRL is a nationwide 1969, Lowe is studying the ability
information center, it proves re- of a certain optical system (LO-
ticent about disclosing the full PAIR) to detect chemical warfare
extent of its own activities. agents.
The University makes a "Quar- Scientists at the Willow Run cen-
terly Compilation" of all research ter are actively involved .-in con-
contracts on campus. But direc- ducting classifed symposiums. The
tor Evaldson declines to release Willow Run center continues to
the information on WRL in the conduct the semi-annual meetings
compilation because "I believe of the Anti-Missile Research Ad-
this goes into greater detail on visory Council (AMRAC) under
our affairs than I could properly sponsorship of the Defense De-
make public." partment's ARPA.
He will release his own "com-. Willow Run scientists have also
pilation of the projects," that ex- taken an active role in the ARPA
cludes the "individual accounts sponsored "Counterinsurgency Re-
Researclh
search and Development Sympo-
sium" (CIRADS. Among those
who have attended the symposium
are Evaldson, James T. Wilson,
head of the IST, and Marvin Hol-
ter, head of the infrared and op-
tical sensor lab at WRL.
This year the University helped
plan and sponsor the second an-
nual CIRADS conference held in
Houston in June. George Zissis,
head of the infrared physics lab at,
WRL was program chairman.
Zissis says .that the conference
"was an interdisciplinary effort to
find out what causes insurgency.
We had political scientists, sociol-
ogists, economists, and scientists
deliver papers on the 'difficult
problem of how you handle in-
,enter
digenous forces in friendly coun-
tries."
"This was an effort to give peo-
ple who have been doing classified
work in this field a chance to get
together and share their informa-
tion."
Zissis says about 300 to 400 per-
sons attended the conference.
"There were people from British
Intelligence, Thailand, Australia,
Hughes Aircraft, the Rand Corpo-
ration, George Washington Uni-
versity, and the Royal Canadian
Dragoons."
"I tried to get someone to de-
liver a paper on how we could end
the conflict in Vietnam but no one
would do it."
Tomorrow: The Spin-Off
I
44
or sub-projects" contained in the'
quarterly compilation.
Some of the project names tend
to be euphemistic. For example a
$48,731 Navy sponsored project
described as "Passive Lopair Sup-
port Studies" with Donald S. Lowe,
a physicist in the Infrared and
Optical Sensor Lab, is actually
IDA: A Military
Research Braintrust
By STEVE WILDSTROM *
Not all military research con-
ducted by University scientists is
done on campus. -
The University is one of the 12
schools that are members of the
Institute for Defense Analyses
(IDA), probably the world's larg-
est scientific braintrust devoted to
military work.
IDA was formed in 1956 in re-
sponse to the rapid growth of
defense department - sponsored
research. Organized as a consor-
tium of the member universities,
IDA describes itself as "a non-
profit corporation to provide the
Department of Defense w i t h
scientific studies in national se-
curity."
Under its terms of incorpora-
tion, the institute is governed by
a board of trustees. The board is
made up of administrators of the
12 schools -including President
Harlan Hatcher-businessmen and
career civil servants.
The institute's projects cover
a wide range of military research
activities. Studies conducted ih
the past few years include:
"Tactical Nuclear Weapons -
Their Battlefield Utility," "Re-
search Guidance for the Develop-
ment of Flame Weapons," "Night
Vision for Counterinsurgents,"
"Interdiction of Trucks from the
Air at Night," "Chemical Control
of Vegetation in Relation to Mil-
itary Needs," "Small Arms for
Counterguerrilla Operations,' and
"A Rational Approach to the De-
velopment of Non-Lethal Chemi-
cal Warfare Agents."
Research work has also includ-
ed field testing in India, Panama
and Bolivia, according to testi-
mony before the House Appropri-
ations Committee in 1965.
The institute was originally
formed to function as an aca-
demic adjunct to the Weapons
System Analysis Group of the de-
fense department. Today, this
function is carried on by one of
IDA's five constituent units, the
Weapons Systems Evaluation Di-,
vision (WSED).
WSED, according to IDA offi-
cials, .works with the defense de-
partment to "evolve studies that
consider not only technical per-
formance of competitive systems,
but also their political and eco-
nomic implications."
Jason Division is a- unique in-
stitution. While other IDA divi-
sions draw on the universities for
full-time researchers, Jason, say
IDA officials, "is a group'tof out-
standing university scientists who
have been invited to make their
consulting time available to IDA,
even though for most of the year
they remain at their respective
campuses."
Prof. Kenneth Case of the phy-
sics department is one of the 44
professors across the country who
do consulting work for IDA. Case
is a theoretical physicist who, dur-
ing World War II, worked at Los
Alamos on the development of
the atomic bomb. For about one
day a month during the school
year, Case works for IDA. He also
attends a six- to eight-week i-
tensive summer study session run
by Jason and several weekend
Jason meetings each year. Case
refused to be interviewed by The
Daily about this relationship.
While he was a professor of
physics at the University, Peter
Franken was also a Jason con-
sultant. Franken went on leave
from the University last year and
is now acting director of the de-
fense department's Advance Re-
The IDA Symbol
search Projects Agency (ARPA),
the arm of the Pentagon that
channels funds for the school's
$1 million counterinsurgency pro-
ject in Thailand.
Gwynn Suits, a research physi-
cist at Willow Run Labs, took a
year-long leave from the Univer-
sity in the 1965-66 academic year
to work on the IDA staff,
George Zissis, head of the Wil-
low Run Center's Physics Lab-
oratory s p e n t the 1963-64
academic year working for the
Research and Engineering Sup-
port Division (RESD) of IDA.
RESD evaluates "present and
future scientific and technologi-
cal capabilities in a broad range
of area to determine the feasi-
bility of their application to na-
tional defense problems.''.
Less is known about the Com-
munications Research Division
(CRD) than about any of the
other IDA divisions. While the
rest of IDA is housed in a head-
quarters building in Arlington,
Va., CRD is located in windowless
brick building, von Neumann Hall,
on the Princeton University cam-
pus.
According to a forthcoming
article in "Viet Report," a month-
ly magazine devoted to Vietna-
mese affairs, CRD does work for
the National Security Agency
particularly in cryptanalysis, the
study of code making and code
breaking, and in electronic sur-
veillance of foreign countries.
IDA was formed after former
Secretary ofDefense Charles E.
Wilson asked James R. Killian,
president of Massachusetts Insti-
tute of Technology, to set up a
defense research corporation.
According to the trade journal
"Aviation Week" (May 21, 1965),
Killian was reluctant for MIT to
go it alone and invited other
schools "to share the blame of
taking these people (scientists)
out of purely educational work
for a while into defense work."
Four other schools-Cal Tech,
Case Institute of Technology,
Stanford and Tulane - accepted
the invitation and IDA was estab-
lished. Since then, the University,
Chicago, I ll i n o i s, California,
Princeton, Penn State and Colum-
bia have joined the consortium.
The initial group received a
$500,000 grant ' from the Ford
Foundation to begin work.
Excluding consultants, the in-
stitute employs about 600 per-
sons, according to "Viet Report."
Its current annual budget is
about $12 million, just a little
over that of Willow Run Labs.
While military research at the
University itself is concerned al-
most entirely w it h defensive
measures and detection, IDA
works in all phases of warfare.
IDA stated its role in its first
annual report in 1956:
"Present military capabilities
based on these new technologies
in hostile hands present our coun-
try with a threat that is histor-
ically unfamiliar: heavy destruc-
tion by direct attack. Moreover,
the area is one of war and peace,
in which vast shifts in the world
power framework, aggravated by
implacable Communist ambitions
of world domination, have brought
us responsibilities beyond the di-
rect defense of our own territory."t
j.4
&A
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500 E. LIBERTY
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