the operational art of war iv air combat

The Earth always orbited the Sun, and the Operational Level of War has always existed.Īs a nineteenth century military historian, the way in which Napoleon planned operations, utilising comparatively vast spaces, and articulating complex manoeuvres was a clear example of operational level planning: that is to say, planning that was somewhere between strategic and tactical in nature.

But that’s a bit like arguing the Earth really was at the centre of the Universe until Galileo and Copernicus theorised otherwise. This commonly leads to an assumption that the operational level didn’t exist before then. The ‘operational level’ was first articulated as a level of war by Alexander Svechin, and conceptually employed by the Soviets during the war on the Eastern Front in 1944-5.

The Operational Level During the Napoleonic Wars Here, two historians, with interests in different periods of military history, outline the relevance of the concept to the Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, and the Second World War. Some argue that the articulation of the concept was a distraction from adequate attention to the tactical and strategic levels of war. In recent years, particularly since difficulties have been encountered in Afghanistan and Iraq, military thinkers and practitioners have begun questioning the existence of the operational level of war.

The operational art of war iv air combat