This IMO, is the key to using the Boyd Action Cycle in the design and implementation of personal defensive skill development and training. It still underpins US Marine Corps fighting doctrine to this day. Although ridiculed, it has, according to Coram: “Become an article of faith that Cheney developed his own plan for fighting the Gulf War. Boyd changed the way pilots thought; prior to his tactics manual, pilots thought that air-to-air combat was far too complex to ever be fully understood. Concealed Carry Skills and Drills – The Book, Serious Mistakes Gunowners Make – The Book, Gunfights and gunbattles to be remembered, Sources of information about deadly force incidents, Jacks & Saps and Timing – Part II | tacticalprofessor, Follow tacticalprofessor on WordPress.com. Schwarzkopf was proposing a head-to-head assault against the main strength of the Iraqi forces, the classic mindset of the Army commanders imbued with the theory of attrition warfare. Boyd, John R. Aerial Attack Study, 1964 (monograph, revised 11 Aug 1964). Updated version of Boyd’s Aerial Attack Study At a given range, the pilot of a fighter aircraft would execute previously determined decisions […]. Boyd divided warfare into three distinct elements: John Boyd's briefing Patterns of Conflict provided the theoretical foundation for the "defense reform movement" (DRM) in the 1970s and 1980s. Schwerpunkt means the main focus of effort. They are not micromanaged; instead they are given “mission orders”. John Richard Boyd (January 23, 1927 – March 9, 1997) was a United States Air Force fighter pilot and Pentagon consultant in the second half of the 20th century. John R. Boyd (1927-1997), a fighter pilot who focused on developing tactics related to air combat maneuvering, was the primary author of the Aerial Attack Study. He went to the Georgia Institute of Technology where, one night while studying for an exam in The moral is that, one by one, individuals committed to an idea provide the positive, constructive forces of history. Boyd was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force following completion of the ROTC program at the University of Iowa. It had to have the fuel to penetrate deep into enemy territory and sustain a prolonged fight. This is true whether the Loop is applied to combat, in competitive business practices, in sports or in personal relationships. During the development of the Aerial Attack Study, he was the Academic Supervisor at the Fighter Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base. This belief was so prevalent that early versions of the F-4 Phantom were ordered and sent into combat without any integrated cannon. “he showed that there were a set of decisions that were made in advance and then a choice of the appropriate decision made in the moment.”. Prior to Colonel Boyd’s AAS,… According to his biographer, Robert Coram, Boyd was also known at different points of his career as "The Mad Major" for the intensity of his passions, as "Genghis John" for his confrontational style of interpersonal discussion, and as the "Ghetto Colonel" for his spartan lifestyle.[6]. When a pilot knows what maneuvers the enemy can perform, he can then decide how to counter any of the other pilot’s actions. In 1959, when he was just a young Captain, Boyd became the first man to codify the elusive and mysterious ways of air-to-air combat. Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, "Interview (Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed The Art of War)", "The Revolt of the Majors: How the Air Force Changed After Vietnam", http://www.goalsys.com/books/documents/DESTRUCTION_AND_CREATION.pdf, "Air Force Colonel John Boyd's 1991 House Armed Services Committee Testimony. This is defined by: However, “anecdotal evidence” remains anecdotal as it’s still extremely difficult to replicate the chaos that the highest combat performers thrive in while creating elegant solutions. This is where most “classical training” focuses in teaching people patterns of response (recognizing pre-incident cues leading to appropriate positioning, etc). For the first time, the high stakes game of aerial combat was documented, codified and illustrated. New Conception of Air-to-Air Combat , 4 August 1976 (presentation, 24 slides). John Boyd was an endearing eccentric and strategic genius who is brought wonderfully to life by author Robert Coram in his meticulously researched book. E-M theory became the world standard for the design of fighter aircraft. In short hand I write this: Our objective (via training) is for the cycle to become: Observe, Orient (minimal), Act! In a final twist, Boyd would become close to then US Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, after the outbreak of the 1990 Gulf War. During late-1959 and early-1960, Boyd Words such as Schwerpunkt and Fingerspitzengefuhl became everyday expressions. Orient – There is an unarmed blow coming into my upper zone. Given the velocity of an enemy, a pilot is able to decide what the enemy is capable of doing. Boyd’s work proves that maneuverability provides the basis for superior performance. Like any good story it has a moral, one consistent with other powerful biographies. The Aerial Attack Study contained everything a fighter pilot needed to know.[20]. Suddenly what he had learned in thermodynamics meshed with all that he had learned as a fighter pilot and Boyd had the epiphany that became his Energy-Maneuverability (E-M) Theory. [11], Boyd is credited for largely developing the strategy for the invasion of Iraq in the Gulf War of 1991. Boyd proved them wrong when he demonstrated that for every maneuver there is a series of counter maneuvers. And I see deep analogies between the concept of maneuverability versus traditional attrition in the field of contemporary business and entrepreneurship, as agile technology-enabled businesses take on their corporate counterparts. Trust emphasises implicit over explicit communications. They knew how many Gs they could pull at a given altitude and still maintain not airspeed but excess energy. Read this book. John Boyd was an architect of that victory as surely as if he'd commanded a fighter wing or a maneuver division in the desert. Fighter aviation became no longer a bag of tricks to be passed down from one generation of pilots to another. During his lengthy career, Boyd earned many decorations, including: During the early 1960s, Boyd, together with Thomas Christie, a civilian mathematician, created the Energy-Maneuverability theory, or E-M theory of aerial combat. This led to the instructor at the time, Michael Wyly, and Boyd changing the curriculum, with the blessing of General Trainor. But also as more than that: “he was that rarest of creatures – a thinking fighter pilot.” Boyd is widely considered to be one of the world’s greatest military strategists, despite the fact that it’s unlikely you have ever heard of him. Coalition forces operated at a much higher tempo than the enemy. He had evolved form being a warrior to a warrior-engineer, and now was about to move into the rarefied atmosphere of the pure intellectual. Some insights from research and experience in the field lead me to believe that in the DECISION making process, it’s not only recognition of past patterns that’s essential, but it’s the ability to create instantaneously on the fly NEW patterns that fit the emerging combative situation, by assembling the best parts of OLD patterns based on the emerging NARRATIVE of the combative situation. In 1961, when back at college for a degree in engineering, Boyd went off on a riff late one night when studying for an exam in thermodynamics about being a fighter pilot in Korea and what it was like to fly an F-86 down MiG alley. [3] Although he was never credited with any kills, after his service in Korea he was invited to attend the most prestigious school a fighter pilot could attend, the Fighter Weapons School (FWS). Everything successful about the Gulf War is a direct reflection of Boyd’s ‘Patterns of Conflict’ – multiple thrusts and deception operations that created ambiguity and caused the enemy to surrender by the thousands. Prior to Colonel Boyd’s AAS, fighter combat was viewed by the majority of fighter pilots as an intuitive skill rather than one that could be codified. During the early 1960s, Boyd, together with Thomas Christie, a civilian mathematician, created the Energy-Maneuverability theory, or E-M theory of aerial combat. Thanks to Rob Pincus, I have found a cleaner copy of Colonel John Boyd's Aerial Attack Study (AAS).