Coevolution in Air Warfare

In the dynamic arena of air combat, attackers and defenders struggle for control of the air. As military units successfully adapt to tactical circumstances, changes in air attack and air defense systems emerge. This study explores how these competing complex adaptive systems adapt and coevolve. Combining complexity theory with concepts from organizational learning and John Boyd's military theory, this study first builds an analytical framework. Specifically, it expands Boyd's OODA loop into a learning loop. Focusing on how military units learn, how they organize, and how nonlinearity affects air warfare, this study then examines three historical case studies: the American bombing campaign against German defenses in early 1944; Israeli air forces against Egyptian air defenses in October 1973; and NATO's air war against Yugoslav defenses in the spring of 1999. As these cases show, opponents do coevolve in the nonlinear environment of air warfare.