The Laboratories makes its services available to the armed forces for
work to which it is uniquely suited. It specializes in military
communications and those instruments of war that depend heavily on
communications and electronics.
In carrying out its military responsibilities, the Laboratories follows
the same time-tested pattern that guides its Bell System activities. Its
military work grows out of _research_, _fundamental development_,
_systems engineering_, and finally specific _development_ and _design_.
[Illustration: _Bell Telephone Laboratories at Murray Hill, New
Jersey_]
Reliability and trouble-free operation throughout long life are
objectives of the Laboratories in designing new equipment and products
for the Bell System. The same objectives are also very important in
designing military equipment. Because of this similarity in the two
fields, scientists and engineers in the Laboratories often divide their
working days between Bell System and military problems. Personnel moves
frequently between the two fields of endeavor. Thus the Laboratories’
long experience in the peacetime science of telephony helps strengthen
the nation’s defense—and discoveries that grow out of military
preparedness help strengthen and improve the nations telephone system.
[Illustration: _“Nike,” one of the new weapons in America’s defense
arsenal. This guided missile is directed in flight by electronic
controls designed by Bell Laboratories and made by the Western
Electric Company._]
[Illustration: _Scientists responsible for the invention of the Bell
Solar Battery examine its characteristics at Bell Laboratories._]