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ReseaRch a n d developmenT In T h e aIR fo R c e 95
into four major functional divisions: research, technical development, testing,
and weapons systems. 80
The Air Force high command reacted favorably to the Stever Committee’s
recommendations. Yet it was not until Schriever’s arrival as ARDC commander
in the spring of 1959 that lasting changes were put in place. Based on the
recommendations of an internal review conducted by his predecessor, Lt.
Gen. Samuel Anderson, Schriever scrapped the functional scheme proposed
by the Stever Committee and chose instead to replicate throughout ARDC
the organizational structure of the Western Development Division. Direct
management authority of R&D programs passed from ARDC headquarters
in Washington to four new operating divisions. The Ballistic Missile Division
retained WDD’s functions, while the Office of Air Research and the Wright Air
Development Center were elevated to division status. The former Office of Air
Research thus became the Research Division and managed ARDC’s in-house
and extramural basic research programs. The Wright Air Development Center
became the Wright Air Development Division (WADD) and directed the
development of aeronautical systems. Work on electronic and communication
systems was vested in the Command and Control Development Division, located
at the Cambridge Research Center in Boston. 81
This divisional structure remained largely intact when the Air Research and
Development Command and the Air Materiel Command merged in April 1961
to form the Air Force Systems Command. The newly named Ballistic, Space,
Electronics, and Aeronautical Systems Divisions assumed complete managerial
responsibility for major weapons technologies, from R&D through full-scale
production to delivery to the user commands. 82 Meanwhile, the research division,
which had been established two years earlier, was separated from AFSC and
assigned to Air Force headquarters, reporting directly to the Chief of Staff. The
new Office of Aerospace Research included ARDC’s extramural contracting
units—the Office of Scientific Research and the European Research Office
in Brussels, Belgium. OAR also acquired managerial control of ARDC’s inhouse
basic research programs, concentrated in the electronics and geophysics
directorates at the newly renamed Cambridge Research Laboratories at Hanscom
Air Force Base outside Boston and the Aeronautical Research Laboratory at the
Wright Air Development Division. 83
Although the reintegration of R&D and production in the Air Force
Systems Command ended more than a decade of jurisdictional squabbling
between the now-defunct Air Materiel Command and Air Research and
80 J. S. Butz Jr., “Stever Proposes ARDC Reorganization,” Aviation Week 69 (21 July 1958): 23–25.
81 “ARDC Consolidates Research Management,” Aviation Week 69 (20 October 1958): 37; C. Lewis,
“ARDC Shifts Project Authority to Four New Operating Divisions,” Aviation Week and Space Technology
71 (12 October 1959): 33–34; “New ARDC Divisions Formed,” Aviation Week and Space Technology 71
(21 December 1959): 21. See also Gorn, Vulcan’s Forge, 55–63.
82 The Air Force System Command also managed two other divisions: bioastronautics and foreign
technology.
83 “Systems Command Given New Functions,” Aviation Week and Space Technology 75 (25 September
1961): 71–73, 77–79; “USAF Sifts Advanced Research Concepts,” Aviation Week and Space Technology 75
(25 September 1961): 82–86.