Defense Giant Passes Away

The defense acquisition, systems and software engineering communities lost one of the true giants this week with the passing Monday of retired Rear Adm. Wayne E. Meyer at the age of 83.

Adm. Meyer was the "father" of Aegis, shepherding it from its beginning to its successful deployment in the fleet.

Meyer's well-known philosophy was "Build a little. Test a little. Learn a lot." It is unfortunate that this philosophy, as well as Meyer's highly disciplined approach to acquiring large-scale, technologically complex systems, has never taken a firm hold across the defense community. A lot of defense program blunders could have been avoided if the community had embraced the approach.

Part of the reason for the Aegis' success was Meyer's determined effort to stay with the program for 15 years, which gave a continuity of technical insight, resource and management commitment and program oversight that no defense program that I know of can boast of today.

Meyer is the last of a military management breed that included Adm. Levering Smith (Polaris Missile), Adm. Hyman Rickover (nuclear submarines), and U.S. Air Force Gen. Bernard Schriever (Minuteman Missile). I doubt their like will ever be seen again.

A full obituary that highlights Adm. Meyer's accomplishments is in today's Washington Post.