On May 28, 2002, the Naval Postgraduate School dedicated and named the Institute of Systems Engineering after RADM (Ret.) Wayne E. Meyer, the “Father of Aegis”.

The importance to the nation of the Aegis weapons system cannot be underestimated. With the passage of time, it is easy to forget the environment within which the AEGIS system was developed.

Like the nuclear submarine and Polaris ballistic-missile system before it, there was a major threat to our nation that made the development of the Aegis system a national priority.

Beginning with the Battle of Leyte Gulf and later in Okinawa, the longest and most decimating battle in Navy history, the success of the Kamikaze in attacking surface ships was obvious to all. Later in the mid-east, the early anti-ship cruise missiles, although crude by current standards, also proved to be very effective.

Beginning in the 1950’s and 1960’s, there were many who argued that the days of surface Navies were over – that surface ships could no longer survive in combat, even against an unsophisticated enemy. Thus the motivation for developing a shipboard defense system that could counter both aircraft and missiles. Aegis represented a major transformation, in which the ship, the combat systems and the training systems were designed as a single unit.

The AEGIS system was designed as a total weapons system, from detection to kill. The heart of the system is an advanced, automatic detect and track, multi-function phased-array radar. This high-powered radar is able to perform search, track and missile guidance functions simultaneously with a track capacity of over 100 targets. The core of the Aegis combat system is the computer-based command and decision element - this interface makes the Aegis combat system capable of simultaneous operation against a multi-mission threat: anti-air, anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare.

AEGIS was the first truly ‘system-engineered’ Navy platform. RADM Meyer’s role in spearheading the development of this vitally important weapons system and securing the safety of our Navy and our nation render it unreservedly appropriate that the Institute of Systems Engineering bear his name.