Nonlinear Science and Warfare by Sean T. Lawson

Author:Sean T. Lawson [Lawson, Sean T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, United States, Strategy, General, Political Science, Security (National & International)
ISBN: 9781135020187
Google: 6003AgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-11-26T16:00:41+00:00

Notes

1 “The East–West Theatre Balance in Europe” sections of the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ The Military Balance reports during this time provide data on the relative numbers of divisions, tanks, artillery pieces, aircraft, and more for each side in the stand-off. By the end of the 1970s, IISS was reporting that the situation had worsened for NATO in practically every category (International Institute for Strategic Studies 1980).

2 The 100–5 manual is the capstone army doctrinal manual, which drives army training, education, weapons procurement, and battlefield tactics.

3 Twenty-seven of the chapter’s 32 pages had such charts.

4 For more on Igloo White in general, see Correll 2004.

5 Christie was appointed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as the director of Operational Test & Evaluation, making him the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense on the testing and evaluation of new weapon systems. Christie served in that position until 2006.

6 The “relative” component here is important. While in recent times many have come to think of the OODA loop in terms of absolute speed – i.e., speed for its own sake – Boyd was adamant that the goal was to go through the cycle faster than the enemy, which might turn out not to be all that fast in an absolute sense, especially if the adversary’s decision cycle is particularly slow. This is an important point that has been made most recently by Frans Osinga (Osinga 2007).

7 Much of the text about Boyd and maneuver appeared in an earlier article by Hart in the New York Times (Hart 1982).

8 Spinney was a Pentagon policy analyst in PA&E and a former air force officer. He had an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering and an MBA with an emphasis in applied statistics. He worked for a time on a doctorate in business and applied statistics. Spinney achieved national notoriety in 1983 when he graced the cover of a special issue of Time magazine after he had testified before Congress, saying that many of the new weapons being procured as part of the Reagan build-up were both too costly and ineffective (Time 1983). For Spinney’s background, see Coram 2002: 292–3, 311. Sprey, who had an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering and graduate degrees in operations research and statistics, came to the Pentagon in 1966 to work in the Office of Systems Analysis. He served as a special assistant to Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Analysis, Alain Enthoven, and was one of the original “whiz kids.” He worked for Enthoven until 1970, but remained in the Pentagon after Enthoven’s departure. On Sprey’s career see Burton 1993: 10; Coram 2002: 196–7; Hammond 2001: 83–4.

9 In fact, they advocated cancellation of practically every piece of equipment that now makes up the equipment base of the U.S. military (National Security Record 1983).

10 Lind is the one who labeled he, Hart, and the other followers of Boyd the “Military Reform Movement,” which Lind said was meant to follow “the model of the sweeping changes within the Prussian army after Napoleon’s overwhelming victory at Jena in 1806” (Maraniss 1984).

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