OODA loops – Kalev Erickson

The OODA Loop is known in business and in warfare. It was originally devised by John Boyd, a USAF officer who was active in the Korean war and who later earned the moniker 40-Second Boyd for his supremacy in simulated air-to-air combat. Boyd revolutionised both aerial combat training tactics and fighter plane design, recognising that quickness, manoeuvrability and superior visibility were a more successful combination than bigger, stronger and more technologically advanced aircraft. US pilots benefited from improved design that allowed for better lines of sight, and as a result were able to process more data more quickly, which could be turned into an advantage against opposition. Boyd later formulated this insight as the OODA Loop, an acronym for Observe, Orient, Decide and Act. The Loop part of the formula described its character as a feedback system that relayed any new data back to the beginning of the process. That is to say, the pilot had to be in a position to make up his own mind on the basis of current evidence. The old order, by contrast, tended to rely on tried and tested formulae which may have functioned once upon a time but had become outmoded.