1. WORK ON THIS PROJECT HAS, TO DATE, DEMONSTRATED THE FOLLOWING:

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Animal Partners
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06527330
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: September 6, 2019
• Document Release Date: September 12, 2019
• Publication Date: August 3, 1976

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3.3(h)(2)
3 August 1976
GENERAL
1. Work on this project has, to date, demonstrated
the following:
A. Birds are capable of being trained to
perform an operational useful task
carrying an adequate payload.
B. Training can insert a specified "detour"
leg into the birds' usual homing behavior.
C. The ability to translate the above behavior
from a training location to a distant
operational target area seems likely.
Therefore, the work proposed here is directed at increasing
our understanding of the processes and best methods in-
volved in A and B above. We further propose to devise
methods, test, and if possible, demonstrate the behavior
described in C, above.
CONDITIONS OF TRAINING
1. The prime condition of training will be that,
once a training cycle (see below) has started, the sequence
and methods will remain as constant as field conditions
permit. The decision to change sequence or methods may
be made between training cycles upon the mutual agreement
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of Contractor and Sponsor's representative if results
call for such changes. This condition is made not to
restrict the freedom of methodological choice, but to
ensure that data obtained during a given cycle of training
will not be clouded by contaminating variations in procedures.
2. Data will be kept in written, systematic form
on each bird and each training session and test. The
actual data to be so recorded will be determined by mutual
agreement of Contractor and Sponsor's representative but
will include, as a minimum, that specified in the work
statement. All data so gathered will be provided to
Sponsor at the completion of the project and is made a
deliverable item.
3. Insofar as conditions permit, clandestinity will
be observed in all operations conducted in public view.
it is, of course, impossible to meet this requirement in
many of the training.operations which will not take place
in the actual clandestine operational mission but as a
minimum, all training operations which have counterparts
in the actual mission will be conducted under conditions
of clandestinity.
4. Movement of the birds from the training base to
the simulated operational sites (see below) will be by
means of whatever mechanisms are decided
upon. Details of site selection of these simulated
operational sites will be at the mutual agreement of Contractor
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and Sponsor's representative. It is understood that
these sites will be progressively farther removed from
the training base site; the last such site being in the
Washington, D.C. area.
5. A large pool (approximately 100) birds will form
the initial population from which trained birds will be
drawn. These birds will first be given an "aptitude" test�
for search-and-find behavior. Those
well will be assigned to training as
whose function is to lead in finding
Other birds will be trained to carry
full mission sequence. At any stage
individual birds show behavior which
which do particularly
"specialist", birds
the target (see below).
a payload through the
of training, as
is inappropriate or
detrimental such birds will be eliminated from the training.
Through this process of retention of only the best field
performers it is expected that the final pool of trained
birds will be composed of about eight in each of the two
categories to be described below. The best of these will
be selected for performance in the last cycle which
simulates, in the Washington, D.C. area, the full opera-
tional mission.
6. In all training flights the full-mission birds
will always carry a simulated payload
weight and configuration will be that
The "specialist" birds will not be so
package whose
of the real payload.
burdened since they
will not be required to perform payload-carrying duty in
the operational mission.
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TRAINING PROTOCOL
BEHAVIORAL ANALYSIS
1. The task to be performed by the birds is, from
the behavioral standpoint, composed of two essentially
different kinds of acts. The first part of the sequence
consists of a kind of search-and-find behavior over the
relatively short distance of two miles. No burden is
placed on the birds' homing abilities by this task since
the target location is novel for both training trials and
the operational mission. The common factors for all
training trials and the operational mission are to be found
in the shape of the target and its bearing from the release
point. If the release point is designated "A" and the target
is designated "B" this first part of the total behavior to
be trained can be referred to as the "A-B" portion.
2. The second portion of the total task calls heavily
upon the birds' homing abilities. Having found the target
they must then abandon their search-and-find behavior and,
using their homing skills, fly approximately thirty miles
in a designated direction to the location at which they
will be retrieved. If the final retrieval location is
designated as "C", the second part of the sequence can be
designated as the "B-C" portion.
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OVERVIEW OF TRAINING PROTOCOL
1. The protocol described in detail below cpntains
the following essential elements:
A. The training of two kinds of birds:
(1) "Specialist" birds that will be
intensively trained solely in A-B
behavior.
(2) "Full Mission" birds that will be
trained in both A-B and B-C behavior.
B. The systematic movement of performance
testing sites from one geographical location
to another will be incorporated into the train-
ing procedures. The final operational mission
would then be just one more repetition of the
behaviors they have been doing all along.
This will improve reliability and provide a
Vavk ecitc..4
basis for .cinti-t-a- the probability of
success for a given mission.
TRAINING OF "SPECIALIST" OR A-B BIRDS
1. The "Specialist" or A-B birds will be used in both
training and the operational mission to increase the
reliability of the A-B portion of the mission. These birds
will be allowed out of the loft only to practice search-
and-find behavior on a fixed bearing. They will receive
food only at the target, whose location will be changed for
each trial. Their sole experience in free flight will b
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restricted to exhibiting A-B' behavior; thus the designation
"Specialists". In training, they will be retrieved at
either the target or back at the release point, "A", to
which, (it has been found) they will often return. In the
operational mission the specialist birds will not carry
payloads and thus are expendable after having performed
their function of acting as leaders of the search-and-
find portion of the mission. They are also used in
helping to train A-B-C birds as indicated below.
TRAINING OF FULL-MISSION (A-B-C) BIRDS
1. The operational requirement for the A-B-C birds
is that, they are to be transported to an actual target
location to perform their mission in a setting with which
they have only limited familiarity. The training protocol
is designed to replicate the combined training and, mission
profile sequence several times over. This procedure has the
double advantage of preparing the birds to perform in an
itt-�An -feA-e S 4-0- r) 4 L &c At +0
operational setting and also allows us toAmake an estimate
of the expected reliability with which the mission will be
performed.
2. Several sites will be used. One, the base site,
will be the main training site. Other sites, which can be
at any location logistically permissable, will comprise
a series of simulated operational sites to which the birds
will be sequentially transferred for testing of the opera-
tional behavior. In the actual operational scenario the
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true operational site would (to the birds) be merely one more
of the same kind of training experiences they have become
accustomed to. This sequential training protocol permits
the replication of the 'training/mission sequence" through
as many cycles as time and resources permit. Detailed
performance records will be kept so that improvement can
be measured quantitatively. Reliability can then be
predicted for any "next cycle" including the operational
one.
3. Appendix I shows graphically the sequence of
events to which the birds will be subjected. Note that
the "specialist" birds will be introduced and removed to
reinforce A-B behavior at appropriate points in the cycle.
At all other times, the A-B birds' training continues
uninterrupted.
4. A mobile loft (possibly a trailer) will be out-
fitted to serve as a portable "home", although several
buildings may prove better, the distance from release to
both the base site and the mobile sites will be identical
to that to be used at the real operational location while
all other aspects except an air conditioner entry port will
be changed as much as possible to accustom the birds to
change in all other aspects of the simulated "C" location.
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RATE OF TRAINING
1. In animal training the time involved generally
takes a subservient role to the number of training trials
administered. The more complex the behavior and the higher
the required level of experience, the more trials are
necessary to achieve success. This principle is as true
in human as in animal learnings; it takes more practice
to play Tchaikowski's "4th Piano Concerto" than
"Chopsticks". In general, simple behaviors can be learned
by animals such as the pigeon in about 25 trials if
conditions are as optimal as one finds in a laboratory._
In the field where many factors cannot be controlled this
number should be at least doubled.
2. If one extrapolates to the operational setting
and tasks involved here, it is probably reasonable to
assume AB behavior can be trained in some pigeons to a�
criterion of twenty consecutive perfect trials in about
fifty sessions. BC behavior can probably be trained
in about fifty trials and combined AB-BC behavior in
about thirty additional trials. This is equivalent to
a total of eighty trials since AB and BC training goes
on simultaneously. Assuming 3.5 trials per bird per
week, this means the training program takes about 23 weeks
or approximately six months. Losses of birds or personnel
could easily extend this to nine months. It should be
both apparent and understood that this time requirement
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is a system constraint imposed by the limits of the
biological organism chosen: the pigeon. Human desires
or demands will not be influential in reducing it.
WORK STATEMENT
1. Acquire and train according to the methods and
procedures described herein, at least fifteen package-
qualified birds to exhibit the behavior described below.
Performance of the birds is to be at the highest level
possible under the constraints of available time and
resources.
Behavior To Be Exhibited: Birds will, upon release
fly to a designated location at least two miles
distant on a bearing to be designated prior to
initiation of training (A to B). Birds will then
continue, flying at least thirty miles on another
designated bearing to a retrieval location, (B to C).
Conditions For Behavior:
(1) The bearings of the A to B and B to C
legs of the flight path are to form an
acute angle not to exceed degrees.
(2) The birds will not have had more than
days of experience with the location of
the final (test) retrieval location. This
experience may include not more than
homing practice flights under simulated
clandestine conditions.
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(3) Full-mission birds are to perform
the ABC behavior carying gm.
payloads.
2. Conduct a final test and demonstration of the
behavior described above in the Washington, D.C. area
under conditions to be specified prior to initiation of
training.
3. Supply to Sponsor documentation including:
A. Training procedures.
B. Data on reliability of performance.
C. Environmental conditions for all training/
test sessions.
D. Times of flight for each bird on each leg
for all training/test flights and description
of their departure/arrival behavior..
E. Weights and deprivation level for each bird
for each training/test flight.
4. Maintain surveillance and search, as appropriate,
for the bird and package lost during the last demonstration
of the project phase now completed.
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