Information Warfare: Five Step Combat Readiness
Ezoic
November 16, 2025: The armed forces that perform most efficiently follow five steps: acquire combat experience, analyze it, propose recommendations, distribute the recommendations and lessons throughout the force, and, finally, apply what has been learned throughout the forces.
These methods have been augmented by Operations Research which is, arguably, the most important scientific development of the 20th century. OR, like the earlier Scientific Method, is basically a management technique. Management is also a 20th century concept that gets little respect. In some respects, OR is the combination of management principles and the Scientific Method. Without the breakthroughs in management techniques, the enormous scientific progress of the 20th century would not have been possible. Without OR, World War II and subsequent wars would have been messier, costlier and longer
All these changes indicated some fundamental shifts in how wars were found but, without a war between anyone using these modern weapons, it was hard to understand what had really changed. Then came the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. During that conflict the speed with which modern weapons and other systems could destroy the enemy and speed up combat shocked generals worldwide. At this point everyone began to ponder the impact of this transformation in the way wars were fought. The Russians concluded that speed in decision making would become decisive, as would the growing Western edge in precision weapons. The Russians proposed in the 1980s that computers be used more by commanders to speed up the planning and execution of battles. That took several more decades to become practical.
https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htiw/articles/2025111654638.aspx#gsc.tab=0
