Office of Naval Research Courts Innovative Industries.

• Author: Tiron, Roxana

The Office of Naval Research wants to be a "one-stop shopping" destination for innovative companies that have state-of-the-art technology, said Navy Rear Adm. Jay Cohen, chief of ONR.

The business opportunities for those companies come in the form of "future naval capabilities, or FNCs," Cohen explained. The FNCs represent 12 priority areas that military commanders consider critical for the future of warfare, he said.

Cohen noted that the FNCs mark a drastic change from previous approaches to technological innovation. In the past, the Navy, together with the other services, used advanced technology demonstrations (ATDs). Those generally lasted for about three years and cost approximately $3 million each. The ATDs, however, often failed to produce tangible products that were useful to the fleet.

The president's budget for fiscal year 2002 requested $1.7 billion for ONR. Approximately $550 million will be assigned to the FNCs.

The FNCs are expected to materialize over a seven-year period. They have to be 20 percent mature and delivered to the Navy program executive officers in the first two years, 60 percent in the middle three years and 20 percent in the final two, said Cohen. "We are constantly renewing what we are doing."

In order to make it a credible program, Cohen explained, ONR required the Navy sponsor agencies to sign a memorandum of understanding that they would provide the transition funds. If they fail to deliver, ONR cancels the program and reassigns the money to other programs. Cohen said he expects a 5 to 10 percent dropout rate.

To make the FNCs accessible to the commercial industry, ONR has established two offices, the Navy Technology Transition Officer (NTTO) and the Commercial Technology Transition Officer (CTTO). Ron DeMarco, he head of NTTO, is responsible for half or the Navy's science and technology budget. He said his office relies on the small business innovation and research program (SBIR) to bring more companies into the process.

"We want to live in a real world," said Jim DeCorpo, the head of CTTO. "We want to know what is out there and capitalize it." The CTTO, he said, is the principal gateway for commercial businesses to work with ONR and develop new technologies. "The CTTO is an advocate for commercial technologies," he said.

The current FNCs were approved in May 2001. (See related table)

The Electric Warship and Combat Vehicles FNC is one of the top priorities, said Cohen. He stressed that the Navy wants to increase the use of electric propulsion. It expects to have the first electric Virginia-class submarine by 2008. "Going electric is revolutionary," he said. "It's the same as sail to steam, oil to nuclear and guns to missiles."

To make the...