Seeking Clocks in the Clouds: Nonlinearity and American Precision Air Power
Abstract
Despite our best scientific intentions, the world remains an inherently complex and unpredictable place. This dissertation explores the American penchant for science and technology and its impact on the development of American precision air power. Throughout their short history, American airmen, in an effort to overcome the pervasive uncertainty of war, have sought greater precision in their air-to-ground weapons, as well as in their plans for employing these weapons. This mechanistic approach to air warfare, however, has not rid air operations of ambiguity and irregularity. As the historical case studies in this dissertation show, an overly-engineered approach has often only further amplified the negative manifestations of nonlinearity. Given the continuing existence of irregularity despite increasing technological sophistication, this study recommends the application new paradigm to air warfare, a paradigm drawn from the modem sciences of chaos and complexity to replace the determinism of the Newtonian science. With its closer analytical fit to the realities of air warfare, a nonlinear analytical paradigm can both improve our understanding of the past, as well as assist us in better preparing for air problems of the future.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA442640
Entities
People
- Gerald S. Gorman
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology