United States Navy Bureau System - Post-World War II Through The 1960s

Post-World War II Through The 1960s

The bureaus' traditional autonomy became hard to maintain after World War II, with the Armed Services' greater emphasis on "Jointness." The complexity of post-war weapons systems was promoting a "systems engineering" approach—an approach that did not fit well with the bureau systems' semi-independence. Other problems related to jurisdiction; the Bureau of Aeronautics' work on unmanned aircraft, for example, overlapped to some degree with the Bureau of Ordnance's work on guided missiles. This particular controversy was resolved in 1959 with the establishment of the Bureau of Naval Weapons (BuWeps), which merged BuAer and BuOrd.

The bureau system largely came to an end in the mid-1960s, in the midst of the Defense Dept.'s overhaul of its entire planning and budgeting system. The bureaus were replaced with "systems commands," or SYSCOMs, which consolidated their functions into broader "systems." The Bureau of Naval Weapons, for example, was replaced by the Naval Air Systems Command, with responsibility for all aircraft, aerial weapons, and related systems, and by the Naval Ordnance Systems Command. BuShips was replaced with the Naval Ship Systems Command (which was later combined with the Naval Ordnance Systems Command to form the Naval Sea Systems Command), with responsibility for all naval shipbuilding. With modifications, the systems-command model remains in place today.