United States Navy bureau system
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The "bureau system" of the United States Navy was the
Department of the Navy Navy Department or Department of the Navy may refer to: * United States Department of the Navy, * Navy Department (Ministry of Defence), in the United Kingdom, 1964-1997 * Confederate States Department of the Navy, 1861-1865 * Department of the ...
's material-support organization from 1842 through 1966. The bureau chiefs were largely autonomous, reporting directly to the
Secretary of the Navy The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense. By law, the se ...
and managing their respective organizations without the influence of other bureaus. In 1966, the bureaus were gradually replaced by unified commands (generally known as " systems commands" or SYSCOMs) reporting to the
Chief of Naval Operations The chief of naval operations (CNO) is the professional head of the United States Navy. The position is a statutory office () held by an admiral who is a military adviser and deputy to the secretary of the Navy. In a separate capacity as a memb ...
.


Before the bureaus

For the first several decades of the Navy Department's existence, all procurement and material matters were handled directly by the Office of the
Secretary of the Navy The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense. By law, the se ...
. As the navy expanded during the
War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
, it became clear that this system was not sufficient for the service's needs. On February 7, 1815, Congress established a three-member Board of Naval Commissioners to handle material-support matters. As part of the navy secretary's office, the board's jurisdiction generally extended only logistical matters such as supply and construction. The Secretary of the Navy remained in control of many operational aspects of the navy.


Establishment of the bureau system, 1842

Ultimately, the Board system was unable to provide the navy with the necessary technical and management control. Among other things, naval technology was becoming increasingly complex during the first half of the 19th century, and required more specialized oversight. In the early 1840s, Congress decided to abolish the Board of Naval Commissioners and replace them with a more specialized bureaucracy based on broad functional areas such as shipbuilding. The first five bureaus were established by Act of Congress on August 31, 1842. They were the: *Bureau of Naval Yards and Docks *Bureau of Construction, Equipment, and Repairs; *Bureau of Provisions and Clothing; *Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography; and *Bureau of Medicine and Surgery


Reorganization, 1862

The system was reorganized during the early years of the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
. By an act of Congress of July 5, 1862 (), the existing bureaus were reorganized and increased to eight. As reorganized, these included the: *
Bureau of Yards and Docks The Bureau of Yards and Docks (abbrev.: BuDocks) was the branch of the United States Navy responsible from 1842 to 1966 for building and maintaining navy yards, drydocks, and other facilities relating to ship construction, maintenance, and repair. ...
; *Bureau of Provisions and Clothing; *
Bureau of Ordnance The Bureau of Ordnance (BuOrd) was a United States Navy organization, which was responsible for the procurement, storage, and deployment of all naval weapons, between the years 1862 and 1959. History Congress established the Bureau in the Departmen ...
(BuOrd); *Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting; *
Bureau of Construction and Repair The Bureau of Construction and Repair (BuC&R) was the part of the United States Navy which from 1862 to 1940 was responsible for supervising the design, construction, conversion, procurement, maintenance, and repair of ships and other craft for the ...
(C&R); *
Bureau of Steam Engineering The Bureau of Steam Engineering was a bureau of the United States Navy, created by the act of 5 July 1862, receiving some of the duties of the former Bureau of Construction, Equipment and Repair. It became, by the Naval Appropriation Act of 4 June ...
(later the Bureau of Engineering); *
Bureau of Navigation The Bureau of Navigation, later the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection and finally the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation — not to be confused with the United States Navys Bureau of Navigation — was an agency of the United ...
(BuNav); and *
Bureau of Medicine and Surgery The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) is an agency of the United States Department of the Navy that manages health care activities for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. BUMED operates hospitals and other health care ...


Late 19th century through World War II

The bureau system dominated the navy's procurement for the rest of the 19th century and into the World War II years. There were a few changes, often brought about by changes in technology or changing missions. The increasing role of
naval aviation Naval aviation is the application of military air power by navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases. Naval aviation is typically projected to a position nearer the target by way of an aircraft carrier. Carrier-based a ...
, for example, led Congress in 1921 to consolide technical authority under a new
Bureau of Aeronautics The Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) was the U.S. Navy's material-support organization for naval aviation from 1921 to 1959. The bureau had "cognizance" (''i.e.'', responsibility) for the design, procurement, and support of naval aircraft and relate ...
(BuAer), with responsibility for the procurement of
naval aircraft Naval aviation is the application of military air power by navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases. Naval aviation is typically projected to a position nearer the target by way of an aircraft carrier. Carrier-base ...
. Previously, this responsibility had been divided among several other navy bureaus. Other changes were more superficial, as in 1892 when the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing was renamed the
Bureau of Supplies and Accounts The Bureau of Supplies and Accounts (BuSandA) was the United States Navy's supply organization between 1892 and 1966. Established in 1842 as the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing, the bureau was responsible for the procurement, receipt, storage, ...
(BuSandA). World War II brought about several other changes. The
Bureau of Ships The United States Navy's Bureau of Ships (BuShips) was established by Congress on 20 June 1940, by a law which consolidated the functions of the Bureau of Construction and Repair (BuC&R) and the Bureau of Engineering (BuEng). The new bureau was to ...
(BuShips) was established in 1940, through the merger of the Bureau of Construction and Repair and the Bureau of Engineering. In 1942, the Bureau of Navigation was renamed the
Bureau of Naval Personnel The Bureau of Naval Personnel (BUPERS) in the United States Department of the Navy is similar to the human resources department of a corporation. The bureau provides administrative leadership and policy planning for the Office of the Chief of Nava ...
(BuPers), to reflect its change in mission.


Post-World War II through the 1960s

By the postwar period, the following bureaus were in existence: *
Bureau of Yards and Docks The Bureau of Yards and Docks (abbrev.: BuDocks) was the branch of the United States Navy responsible from 1842 to 1966 for building and maintaining navy yards, drydocks, and other facilities relating to ship construction, maintenance, and repair. ...
; *
Bureau of Supplies and Accounts The Bureau of Supplies and Accounts (BuSandA) was the United States Navy's supply organization between 1892 and 1966. Established in 1842 as the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing, the bureau was responsible for the procurement, receipt, storage, ...
; *
Bureau of Naval Weapons The Bureau of Naval Weapons (BuWeps) was part of the United States Navy's material organization between 1959 and 1966, with responsibility for procurement and support of naval aircraft and aerial weapons, as well as shipboard and submarine naval we ...
which merged BuAer and BuOrd; *
Bureau of Ships The United States Navy's Bureau of Ships (BuShips) was established by Congress on 20 June 1940, by a law which consolidated the functions of the Bureau of Construction and Repair (BuC&R) and the Bureau of Engineering (BuEng). The new bureau was to ...
; *
Bureau of Naval Personnel The Bureau of Naval Personnel (BUPERS) in the United States Department of the Navy is similar to the human resources department of a corporation. The bureau provides administrative leadership and policy planning for the Office of the Chief of Nava ...
; and *
Bureau of Medicine and Surgery The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) is an agency of the United States Department of the Navy that manages health care activities for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. BUMED operates hospitals and other health care ...
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 Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design, integrate, and manage complex systems over their enterprise life cycle, life cycles. At its core, systems engineering util ...
" 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 Department'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. The two non-
materiel Materiel (; ) refers to supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commercial supply chain context. In a military context, the term ''materiel'' refers either to the specifi ...
bureaus, Bureau of Naval Personnel and Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, are still in existence.


Coordination of bureaus

The first body to be charged with the coordination of the bureaus, in 1908, was the
General Board of the United States Navy The General Board of the United States Navy was an advisory body of the United States Navy, somewhat akin to a naval general staff and somewhat not. The General Board was established by general order 544, issued on March 13, 1900 by Secretary ...
. The General Board had the advantage of being staffed with experienced former line officers and of being charged with determining long term naval requirements and policy. The disadvantage of the General Board was that it functioned in an advisory capacity only and it lacked a technical staff to verify bureau decisions. Ultimately, there were several cases of failures of coordination between bureaus, with three between 1938 and 1943 having major implications: * The ''Iowa'' class battleship design, in which C&R designed a lighter more compact hull for speed and BuOrd somehow dropped its paper study for a matching turret and proceeded with a design for a larger turret using guns from canceled 1922-era
battleships A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...
and
battlecruisers The battlecruiser (also written as battle cruiser or battle-cruiser) was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. These were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships, but differed in form and balance of attr ...
. As naval historian
Norman Friedman Norman Friedman (born 1946) is an American internationally known author and analyst, strategist, and historian. He has written over 30 books and numerous articles on naval and other military matters, has worked for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps ...
has recounted: * Upon delivery of the ''Sims'' class destroyer USS ''Anderson'' to the Navy in May 1939 it was discovered that the high pressure steam plant designed by BuEng was too heavy for the hull designed by C&R, by 150 tons. The
metacentric height The metacentric height (GM) is a measurement of the initial static stability of a floating body. It is calculated as the distance between the centre of gravity of a ship and its metacentre. A larger metacentric height implies greater initial stab ...
was insufficient, which resulted in a higher risk of capsizing. Corrections to this class included removal of top weight from the superstructure (including guns and torpedo tubes) and adding ballasting lower in the hull. This time there were repercussions: the chiefs of the two bureaus were ultimately fired by Acting Secretary of the Navy
Charles Edison Charles Edison (August 3, 1890 – July 31, 1969) was an American politician, businessman, inventor and animal behaviorist. He was the Assistant and then United States Secretary of the Navy, and served as the 42nd governor of New Jersey. Commonly ...
, and Congress merged the two bureaus into BuShips in 1940. * The 1940-1943 design of the ''Sumner'' class destroyers was protracted as conflicting requirements were repeatedly considered. The resulting design was more than satisfactory, but there was a widespread impression that the General Board had been indecisive. In 1945 the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations / OpNav created the Ship Characteristics Board / SCB to supplant and eventually replace the General Board as the body coordinating the bureaus' design activities. The SCB had the advantages of direct OpNav authority and of specialized staff who could spend more time on design work, but it lacked the long range planning role of the General Board. The SCB role as a coordinator faded after the bureaus were reconstituted as System Commands and all were moved under the direct authority of OpNav in 1966. In the 1980s it was revived as the Ship Characteristics Improvement Board (SCIB), but without its former authority.Friedman, Amphibious Ships, pp 13 In 1942 the Office of Procurement and Material was created to coordinate procurement activities among the bureaus. The Office of Procurement and Material would undergo several changes of name until it was merged into the System Commands in 1985. At this time the Office of Naval Acquisition Support was established to create acquisition support for functions that span across Commands, and that require a degree of independence in their operations.


See also

* Board of Naval Commissioners Successor Commands *
Naval Air Systems Command The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) provides materiel support for aircraft and airborne weapon systems for the United States Navy. It is one of the Echelon II Navy systems commands (SYSCOM), and was established in 1966 as the successor to the ...
*
Naval Sea Systems Command The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) is the largest of the United States Navy's five "systems commands," or materiel (not to be confused with "material") organizations. From a physical perspective, NAVSEA has four shipyards for shipbuilding, c ...
which merged Naval Ships Systems Command and Naval Ordnance Systems Command *
Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command The Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWARSYSCOM), based in San Diego, is one of six SYSCOM Echelon II organizations within the United States Navy and is the Navy's technical authority and acquisition command for C4ISR (Command, Contr ...
*
Naval Facilities Engineering Command The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) is the United States Navy's engineering systems command, providing the Navy and United States Marine Corps with facilities and expeditionary expertise. NAVFAC is headquartered at the Washi ...
and later
Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) is the United States Navy's engineering systems command, providing the Navy and United States Marine Corps with facilities and expeditionary expertise. NAVFAC is headquartered at the Washi ...
*
Naval Supply Systems Command The Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) is the United States Navy's supply command, providing the Navy and United States Marine Corps with supplies, services, and quality-of-life support. Headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, the NAVSUP ...


References


Notes


Sources

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External links


Records of the Bureau of Aeronautics
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