More on Boyd

After the fact, I realized I rather inelegantly described John Boyd's energy manueverability theory for air-to-air fighter combat tactics. It happens. Luckily, Chester Richards (www.belisarius.com) did a much better job in an interesting paper called "A Swift Elusive Sword: What if John Boyd and Sun Tzu did a national defense review." Richard's worked with Boyd well and has applied his theories on strategy as well as anyone. EM theory, according to Richards, shows which, for two competing fighters, "will have the advantage in any flight state (combination of airspeed, altitude, and direction). 'Manueverability' is the ability to change flight states-- to climb, for example, turn, or accelerate, or any combination thereof." You can find more on Boyd at www.belisarius.com. It's an excellent site. Richards has also published a dense but interesting piece Boyd wrote called, appropriately (in the context of a previous post) Destruction and Creation. It's really a theory of knowing and understanding. You can find it here... http://www.belisarius.com/modern_business_strategy/boyd/destruction/destruction_and_creation.htm And, incidentally, I tried to find a version of the Boyd OODA loop that's slightly larger than what I was able to publish in the January issue...but failed. For a link, though, go to http://www.belisarius.com/modern_business_strategy/shay/ooda_loop_sketch.htm