Remembering Colonel John Boyd, USAF

I'm sure those of my readers who are aviation enthusiasts will have heard of the late Colonel John Boyd.  He codified a new understanding of what became known as 'Energy–maneuverability theory', which affected the design of 1970's-era fighter aircraft such as the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon.  He went on to develop the concept of the OODA Loop, which has influenced doctrine and tactics in many fields, both military and civilian, to this day.

The Atlantic has republished an appreciation of Col. Boyd from 1997, when he died.  It provides a valuable overview of his life and work.  Here's an excerpt.

After leaving the Air Force as a colonel in 1975, Boyd began the study of long historical trends in military success through which he made his greatest mark. He became a fanatical autodidact, reading and marking up accounts of battles, beginning with the Peloponnesian War. On his Air Force pension, he lived modestly, working from a small, book-crammed apartment. He presented his findings in briefings, which came in varying lengths, starting at four hours. Boyd refused to discuss his views with those who would not sit through a whole presentation; to him, they were dilettantes. To those who listened, he offered a worldview in which crucial military qualities--adaptability, innovation-- grew from moral strengths and other "warrior'' virtues. Yes-man careerism, by-the-book thought, and the military's budget-oriented "culture of procurement'' were his great nemeses.

Since he left no written record other than the charts that outlined his briefings, Boyd was virtually unknown except to those who had listened to him personally--but that group grew steadily in size and influence. Politicians, who parcel out their lives in 10-minute intervals, began to sit through his briefings. The Marine Corps, as it recovered from Vietnam, sought his advice on morale, character, and strategy. By the time of the gulf war, his emphasis on blitzkrieglike "maneuver warfare'' had become prevailing doctrine in the U.S. military. As a congressman, Dick Cheney spent days at Boyd's briefings. As defense secretary, he rejected an early plan for the land war in Iraq as being too frontal and unimaginative--what Boyd would have mockingly called "Hey diddle diddle, straight up the middle''--and insisted on a surprise flanking move.

There's more at the link.  Highly recommended reading, as is Robert Coram's excellent biography of Col. Boyd (from the cover of which the above image is taken).  If any one man, more than any other, can be said to have revolutionized air warfare during the past half-century, Col. Boyd would have a pretty strong claim to that title.

Peter