By Geoff Fein

The Navy last week disbanded the office of Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Integrated Warfare Systems (DASN IWS) and created a new executive director position that will fall under DASN Ships.

Personnel formerly under DASN IWS, will now report directly to the new Executive Director for Ships/Submarines, Integrated Warfare Systems, according to the July 10 memo signed off by Vice Adm. David Architzel, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research, Development and Acquisition.

Wayne Meeks is being reassigned to head up the new position, Architzel said in his memo.

“These changes enhance our ability to support the interests of shipbuilding programs and the systems integrated within these platforms,” Architzel said in his memo.

DASN IWS has advisory and oversight responsibility for the cost, schedule, and performance of surface ship, submarine, and Marine Corps combat systems, weapon systems, electronic warfare systems, shipboard radars, Open Architecture, and Navy missile defense programs, according to the Navy.

Under the realignment plan, those responsibilities will now come under Meeks.

Meeks will report directly to Allison Stiller, the current DASN Ships.

The change comes just a few weeks after the Navy created the Principal Civilian Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Acquisition Workforce (PCDASN (AW)). Jim Thomsen, the former Program Executive Officer for Littoral Mine Warfare (PEO LMW) will head up the new acquisition workforce position (Defense Daily, June 25).

Anne Sandel, currently DASN IWS, will head to Naval Sea Systems Command to become PEO LMW on July 28. Her last day as DASN IWS, however, is July 17.

In July 2007, then-Rear Adm. Architzel was selected to become principal deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for RD&A. The move was seen as an effort to fill a much- needed capability in the Navy’s acquisition shop, which had been without a three-star flag officer since 2000. Architzel, who was PEO Carriers at the time, was nominated for a third star prior to transitioning to RD&A. The other services all have three-star acquisition deputies (Defense Daily, July 13, 2007).