Approved For Release 2003/0t%Wt)P96-00788ROO1200230031-1 SRI 0-4132 kInternational This document consists of 2 pages. Copy No. 7 19 March 1980 CLASSIFIED BY: HQDA Msg. (DAMI-ISH) dated 7 Jul 78 REVIEW ON: 7 July 1998 Hon. Walter B. LaBerge Principal Deputy, Undersecretary of Defense, Research & Engineering 3E1034 Pentagon Washington, D.C. 20310 "SPECIAL ACCESS PROGRAM FOR GRILL FLAME. RESTRICT DISSEMINATION TO ONLY INDIVIDUALS WITH VERIFIED ACCESS" Dear Dr. LaBerge: SG1A To bring you up to date on our efforts in the Grill Flame program, we wish to inform you that we are now achieving increasingly accurate results in operational tasks, aided by a substantial increase in reliability resulting from a recent training study. (See, e.g., recent DIA series which provided detailed descriptions generated for other clients.) From these data provided to enents, their own assessments as to the importance of the data, and our own recent progress in understanding the scope of the Grill Flame phenomena, we are persuaded that it is of clear importance to the national interests to come to grips with these phenomena and to vigorously pursue developments in this area. However, we have just learned that, based on a recommendation of the Gale Committee, ODDR&E will not provide support for R&D efforts in the Grill Flame area. We were further advised that a major factor leading to this recommendation was that the Committee concluded that the work being pursued under Grill Flame was of such a complex nature as to not provide basic proof-of-principle of the phenomena of interest. We have received this news with the gravest concern for the following two reasons that we would like entered into the record: (1) With regard to the SRI work, our contracts stipulated that we provide "what if" threat analyses, utilizing experimental protocols applicable to specific operational tasks; we were not mandated to undertake formal proof-of-principle research. (2) Our efforts have yielded both general results and specific data that have been described to us by our various DoD and Intelligence Community clients as being of vital importance to the national interests. SRI International 333 Ravenswood Ave. * Menlo Park, CA 94025 9 (415) 326-6200 e Cable: SRI INTL MNP e TWX: 910-373-1246 SECRET Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788ROO1200230031-1 Approved For Release 2003/012C RUIDP96-00788 ROO 1200230031 -1 Hon. Walter B. LaBerge Page 2 19 March 1980 For these reasons we regret cessation of R&D efforts in the Grill Flame area. In support of our concern, we earnestly request that the results of several recent operational tasks now in hand with our various clients be reviewed as a matter of utmost importance and urgency, and that steps be taken to prevent losing the initiative and momentum we had just begun to achieve in the Grill Flame area. Respectfully submitted, C7- H. E. Puthoff, Ph.D. R. Targ E. C. May, Ph.D. Radio Physics Laboratory PTM:lal SECRET Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788ROO1200230031-1