What follows is an article written by Londale Theus about the OODA Loop.

THE OODA LOOP

aka the Boyd Cycle

The significance of the Observation-Orientation-Decision-Action cycle was first note during the mid 1970's by John Boyd, a young captain in the US Air Force assigned to study air to air combat during the Korean conflict.

American aviators were especially successful in Korea, achieving a 10 to 1 kill ration against their opponents. Why?

The first possibility John Boyd considered is that the Americans simply had better planes. But, as it turned out, by most measures of aircraft quality, the American F-86 was inferior to its Korean War opponent, the MiG-15. The MiG-15 could climb and accelerate faster and turn quicker than the F-86. Nevertheless, the F-86 had two advantages over the MiG-15. First, its pilot could see out better. Second, it had quick, high powered hydraulic controls, and the MiG did not. This meant that, although the MiG could perform many individual maneuver activities- turning, climbing, accelerating- better than the F-86, The F-86 could switch from one activity to another much more quickly than the MiG.

Using these two advantages, American pilots developed tactics that forced the MiG into a series of maneuvers. Because the pilot of the F-86 could see how the situation had changed and could switch faster to another activity, at each maneuver the F-86 gained a beat on its opponent. With each switch, therefore, the MIGs responses were less appropriate to the situation, until they were so inappropriate that the MiG was exposed to destruction. Often it appeared that the MiG pilot realized what was happening to him and panicked, which made the American pilot's job all the easier.

John Boyd then turned to ground combat to see if circumstances paralleled those of the air war over Korea. He found a similar pattern. ONE side presented the other with a sudden, unexpected challenge or series of challenges to which the other side could not adjust in a timely manner. As a result, the side with the slower response was defeated, and it often defeated at a small cost to the victor. Moreover, the losing side was frequently materially stronger than the winner and, in many cases, the same sort of panic and paralysis the MiG pilots had shown in Korea seemed to occur.

What do the winners in these cases have in common? John Boyd's answer is that they consistently went through the OODA Loop, sometimes called the Boyd Cycle, faster than their opponent and thereby gained a tremendous advantage. By the time their opponent acted, they were doing something different. With each cycle, the slower sides actions were less apt and they fell farther and farther behind. This is what happened in many of history's most decisive battles.

Hannibal went through the OODA Loop faster than the Romans and Cannae and won one of history's greatest tactical victories. The Germans beat the French in 1940 and the Japanese beat the British in Malaya in 1942 because they went through the OODA Loop faster than their opponents. In some of these cases, a single, sudden action was enough. In others, a series of Boyd Cycles was required. But in every case, the critical competition was in time and the faster side won.

Most athletes, amateur as well as professional, know from experience that this ability is often the key to victory.

To say that the Boyd Cycle is important is not to say that it is everything. In some real time competitions, material factors predominate. In sports, the ability to out hit, outrun, and outlast your opponent usually trumps over observing and orienting skills. Advantages similar to strength, foot speed, and stamina are provided in wartime by a nation's personnel pool and its industrial, technological and logistical base. As Napoleon Bonaparte observed, "God is on the side of the big battalions."

I would also add that in many real time competitions, frame of mind is extremely important. Winners have grit. In battle, grit means physical, moral, and intellectual courage. In sports, it means the will to win. Again, as Napoleon observed, "In war, the morale (mental) is to the material (physical) as the ratio of six to one."

In war, one of the most effective strategies combines offensive operations with defensive tactics. By this I mean taking a defensive position that threatens the base of your opponents, thereby forcing them to attack a prepared position or to withdraw ignominiously. If your opponents attack, they often expose themselves to destruction in the form of a well timed counter attack. As in war, it is easier to defend a given position than to attack it successfully. (by Dr. Fred Thompson)

I believe that the OODA Loop takes place in almost everything we do. Sometimes it is not a conscious act, but is there none the less.

Train smart, train well.