Retired Rear Adm. Wayne E. Meyer spoke at a 2006 ceremony celebrating an Aegis system milestone. Meyer was the leading force for development of the Aegis system that transformed naval warfare.

WASHINGTON — Retired Rear Adm. Wayne E. Meyer, who was the force behind the Navy’s development of the Aegis weapons system, which transformed the nature of naval warfare by relying on computerized and radar-controlled missile defense, died Sept. 1 of congestive heart failure at Washington Hospital Center. He was 83 and a resident of Falls Church, Va.

Meyer was an engineer by training and the founding project manager of the Aegis Weapon System Project, the research and development program that began in 1970. Promoted to admiral in 1975, he took over the Aegis combat system in 1976 and the Aegis shipbuilding project a year later. Widely known as the “father of Aegis,” he was involved with the program from 1970 until his retirement in 1985.

With 89 ships built or in construction and with more in planning stages, the system he championed is one of the longest and largest naval shipbuilding programs in history. It is widely considered the premier air defense system in the world and is deployed by the U.S. Navy as well as the navies of Japan, Australia, Spain, South Korea and Norway.

The project was ultimately responsible for the construction of all of the Navy’s current cruisers and destroyers. The first Aegis-equipped cruiser, the Ticonderoga, was launched in 1983. Within months of commissioning, the Ticonderoga played a lead role in the nation’s response to the bombing of the Marine Corps barracks in Lebanon. The first Aegis destroyer, Arleigh Burke, was launched in 1991.

Named for the mythical shield of Zeus, Aegis was initially seen by its supporters as the answer to a vexing problem of the Cold War era, Meyer told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2004. “At the end of World War II, we had no defenses against a rocket or a ballistic-type missile or a kamikaze-type missile, today called a cruise missile,” he said.

Rear Adm. Charles T. Bush, who was the Navy’s program executive officer for integrated warfare systems in 2004, told the Inquirer that Aegis represented an advance in surface warfare that was more significant than the transition “from sail to steam.”

Hugely expensive, and hugely controversial, the program was designed initially to defend against swarms of hard-to-see, fast-flying Soviet cruise missiles launched from air, land or beneath the sea.

Aegis critics, both congressional and military, argued that it wasn’t worth the expense. Retired Adm. Thomas Davies, who tried in vain to curtail the program, told the Wall Street Journal in 1983 that the Aegis was “the greatest expenditure to get the least result in history.” Davies pushed for a smaller, cheaper and simpler radar system.

Other stories over the years quoted critics who said the system’s powerful phased-array radar beams made Aegis-equipped ships an easy target for enemy missiles. Still others opposed to Aegis argued that it made the ships top-heavy.

Meyer persisted, and ultimately prevailed. “You know what it takes?” he asked the Wall Street Journal reporter. “Staying power. Determination. That’s what I tell my people. It is such a damn disheveled process that even as few as a half-dozen people who know what the hell they are doing can get the job done.”

Wayne Eugene Meyer was born April 21, 1926, in Brunswick, Mo. He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Kansas in 1946 and a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1961. He received another bachelor’s degree, in electrical engineering, from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.

His career began in 1943 as a 17-year-old apprentice seaman. He was commissioned an ensign three years later and transferred to the regular Navy in 1948.

In 1963, Secretary of the Navy Fred Korth asked then-Cmdr. Meyer to lead a special task force for surface-guided missiles. He turned down a destroyer command to continue his work with missile, radar and fire control systems and became the founding chief engineer at the Naval Ship Missile Systems Engineering Station at Port Hueneme, Calif.

Meyer retired from active duty in 1985. In retirement, he ran a management and consulting business for the Navy and chaired numerous Navy advisory boards.

His first wife, Margaret Garvey Meyer, died in 1992.

Survivors include his wife of six years, Anna Mae Seixas Meyer of Falls Church; three children from his first marriage, James Meyer of Indianapolis, Robert Meyer of Boston and Paula Meyer of Tampa.; two stepchildren, Anna Seixas of Cherry Hill, N.J., and Eddie Seixas of Falls Church; and four grandchildren.

Meyer’s military decorations included the Distinguished Service Medal and the Legion of Merit.