Management of a Navy R and D Activity

The philosophy of management of a Navy Bureau of Aeronautics Research and Development activity is described and compared with similar large size industrial activities. Complications arise in execution because of the external influence of a Civil Service, which has not been adapted to technological growth. The impact of staff organization, both in the Navy and the Secretary of Defense, is similar to the situation in huge centralized corporations. Military control is not considered to be a problem. The efforts of a military laboratory must be aimed at improving the capabilities of its parent service to wage war. This puts the Navy laboratory into the development and applied research field rather than its basic research. Freedom of investigation is enhanced since development is against a concept and not against a cash balance.