National Severe Storms Laboratory, Norman, Oklahoma, April 25, 2003

National Weather Radar Testbed Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

Remarks at the Ceremony

Dr. Jane Alexander, Executive Director for Science and Technology
Office of Naval Research

It is my pleasure to be here today and to welcome our distinguished friends and colleagues.

Tornadoes are nature's most violent storms. In an average year, 800 tornadoes are reported across the United States, usually resulting in 80 deaths and over 1,500 injuries. Oklahoma knows Mother Nature's bad side very well.

Today's ceremony marks a major milestone, not only for the atmospheric science community, but also for the city of Norman and the State of Oklahoma. It is most appropriate that this facility be located here in Norman. It is the home of the nation's center of excellence in radar meteorology and storm research, the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL). It is also the home of one of the world's premier academic institutions of atmospheric science, the University of Oklahoma [I am also reliably informed that this prestigious school also has a football team of some consequence.] And, this region has suffered greatly from the devastating effects of violent storms and severe weather.

This facility is a historic example of multiple benefits. Your tax dollars spent on military research and development to keep your Navy technologically superior, are being re-used for a compelling civilian purpose, prediction of violent storm formation and behavior. Launched from military technology, this facility is now a national science resource.

Allow me tell you briefly, the military research story.

In the mid 1960's, the US Navy launched a program to design a vastly more capable air defense radar for its combat ships. The pressing threat at the time was the large Soviet Backfire bomber fleet and its array of "carrier-killer" missiles. Essentially, the Navy radar program was made possible by the computer revolution and driven by the single-minded vision of RADM Wayne Meyer. The program was called AEGIS, after the shield of Zeus. Through almost an entire decade, careful research, and painstaking development were carried out to produce a phased array radar, one in which the search beams are electronically controlled.

The AEGIS radar was as different from it predecessors as a baseball bat is from a light saber. It was immensely powerful, frequency agile, tactically flexible, extremely reliable and became the heart of the AEGIS Combat System - the premier naval weapons system at sea today. It is now deployed on 66 ships. AEGIS is fast, powerful, accurate and although designed for air defense, produces immense quantities of real-time data on storms.

The same tactical characteristics that make AEGIS superior: scan rate, frequency agility, segmented volume coverage, independent electronically controlled beams, and exquisite sensitivity, are precisely the features that researchers here at NSSL need to scour fronts and air masses to recognize the precursors to the formation of tornadic storms.

As I said, this facility is historic, in that it is exceedingly rare for such a perfect civilian application to emerge from such a sophisticated military technology. But, we must note that this facility did not spring up of itself. The vision of many individuals led to the formation of this unique partnership among academia, industry, government agencies, and the Navy with a common goal of transforming military technology into a civilian research facility that will provide great benefit to the region, and ultimately the nation.

A short history may be interesting to you all, to show the degree of technical cooperation, integration and effort by all partners:

The ONR Marine Meteorology Program, then led by Dr. Scott Sandgathe, funded the initial S & T accomplished by Lockheed Martin and others to verify the capability of the superb AEGIS Radar for sensing weather.
NSSL (who previously used a military surplus radar to do the R&D that led to the now standard NEXRAD) quickly recognized the advantage of AEGIS phased-array technology. Jeff Kimpel of NSSL and John Heimmer approached Admiral Paul Gaffney, the then Chief of Naval Research at ONR, with the idea of getting one for NSSL research.
The Oklahoma and New Jersey Congressional delegations, and OU President David Boren provided essential support to begin the project.
ONR arranged the loan of the radar equipment from the AEGIS Program Office, while NSSL secured the high power transmitter from NOAA/National Weather Service. NSSL negotiated with NOAA to provide sustaining infrastructure support after the facility is built.
NSSL partnered with OU's Engineering and Meteorology Departments to secure funding from the University and the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education to develop the data processor.

All those working to make this vision a reality, could not have done so without other important allies who contributed their valuable time and energy, added this important work to their funding priority lists, and procured the equipment and integrating engineering needed to make the vision spring to life. Those important partners are:

Representatives Watts of Oklahoma and Saxton of New Jersey and now Representative Cole of the 4th district, Oklahoma, and President Boren, who generated the critical start-up funding and provided much encouragement,
Additional fiscal support from the far-sighted Oklahoma Stated Regents for Higher Education,
The Federal Aviation Administration, which provided the funding for the continuous antenna rotation upgrade,
NOAA, who will provide the sustaining funding so vital to the continuing operation of this facility,
The University of Oklahoma,
The contribution of major equipment from the Navy's AEGIS Program Office, the National Weather Service, and Lockheed-Martin Corporation,
And Mr. John Heimmer from BCI, and Tom McNellis and the engineering team from Lockheed-Martin, who did a great job of making the facility a reality.

In addition to corralling the resources, as usual, success in any science endeavor comes down to the collaborative hard work of a great many talented individuals and efficient organizations. There are many who deserve to be mentioned here. For all of you who remain unmentioned, take a full measure of personal pride from your individual contribution, and take another equal measure for your collective accomplishment.

The collaborator's work is now complete. As we entrust the stewardship of this facility to NOAA, we are confident that the outstanding researchers here at NSSL, and their colleagues across the nation, will use it to derive great benefit for the city of Norman, for the local region so frequently the target of these storms, and for the nation.

My congratulations, and well done to you all.

Thank you.