To download as a PDF click here - US Army Center Of Military History

ch a p T e R on e
Introduction: The Sources of Weapon Systems Innovation
This study of weapons research and development (R&D) in the Army, the
Navy, and the Air Force complements a larger, multivolume history of weapons
acquisition in the Department of Defense, covering the period 1945 to 2001.
The series examines the policies, procedures, and institutional environment that
guided the development and procurement of major weapon systems, such as
tanks, artillery, strategic and tactical aircraft, ballistic missiles, surface ships, and
nuclear submarines. 1 Because of its brevity, imposed by a one-year contract with
the U.S. Army Center of Military History, this monograph does not examine
all of the in-house laboratories owned and operated by the military services. It
concentrates instead on major facilities and programs that illustrate the scope
and content of weapons R&D at specific points in time throughout the postwar
period. The goal is not to be comprehensive but rather to provide a broad
historical overview of the Defense Department’s internal R&D operations and
highlight the patterns of organizational change that guided the development of
major weapon systems.
Toward that goal, this study focuses on laboratory research in the physical
sciences. It omits federally funded research and development centers, many of
which did not support bench science in the laboratory. The Rand Corporation, the
Mitre Corporation, and the Institute for Defense Analysis, for example, fit into this
latter category. Also omitted are civilian government laboratories, even though they
routinely provided technical services, and in some cases complete weapon systems,
to the military departments. Representative examples of institutions in this category
include the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the National Bureau of
Standards, and the nuclear weapons laboratories and production facilities owned by
the Department of Energy and its predecessor, the Atomic Energy Commission. 2
1 The series, which was still in progress at the U.S. Army Center of Military History at the time this
study was completed (fall 2006), comprises five narrative volumes and one documentary volume.
2 On the National Bureau of Standards, see Rexmond C. Cochrane, Measures for Progress: A History of
the National Bureau of Standards (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, 1966); Elio Passaglia
with Karma A. Beal, A Unique Institution: The National Bureau of Standards, 1950–1969 (Washington, D.C.:
U.S. Department of Commerce, 1999); and James F. Schooley, Responding to National Needs: The National
Bureau of Standards Becomes the National Institute of Standards and Technology, 1969–1993 (Washington,
D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, 2000). The history of the National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics is examined in Alex Roland, Model Research: The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics,
1915–1958, 2 vols. (Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1985). On the
Atomic Energy Commission, see the official three-volume history: Richard G. Hewlett and Oscar E.
Anderson, The New World, 1939–1946, vol. 1 of A History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission
(University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1962); Richard G. Hewlett and Francis Duncan,
Atomic Shield, 1947–1952, vol. 2 of A History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission (University
Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1969); and Richard G. Hewlett and Jack M. Holl, Atoms for
Peace and War, 1953–1961: Eisenhower and the Atomic Energy Commission, vol. 3 of A History of the United