Patterns of Conflict
| The works of |
| Works of John Boyd |
|---|
OODA WIKI Edition
Quantico Transcription
[10:00] I’m trying to compress in sort of one chart, the essence of blitzkrieg. Here’s the kind of thing you’re doing. And the ambiguity, deception, mobility, and you focus that violence to quickly realize these kinds of things.
And we said the other night, you know, we always talk about it for the people that weren’t here last night. We were talking about deception plans. But what about ambiguity?
Wyly: We ought to go back to what you were saying. You were talking about Balck in Hungary and the extreme case there. I’m still thinking of your question. I’m sure Balck was outnumbered. And I’m familiar with that quote too. He said, “I was so outnumbered, I had to attack.” That’s the way he put it.
Boyd: That’s right.
Wyly: But now let’s think about the invasion of France. The Germans again were outnumbered. There was no preponderance of forces when they used the same technique or the same thing, the invasion of Russia, or Genghis Khan.
As Colonel Boyd pointed out, Genghis Khan was always outnumbered. So—
[Cross talk]
Boyd: And he had multiple thrusts. He was not only outnumbered, Genghis Khan was not only outnumbered. He had multiple thrusts, and they were spread over areas you can’t believe.
Wyly: So it’s the illusion. In fact, it’s exactly. Well, think of Ray Smith—
[Cross talk]
Wyly: —on Grenada. His Marines were the smallest force there. Yet the same Marines were being counted again and again. And I think that’s something about multiple thrusts, is they do indeed give the illusion of numbers, of more numbers than there are because you’re counting the same—
[Cross talk]
Boyd: You seem to be everywhere but nowhere.
[Cross talk]
Boyd: See, in one sense you’re nowhere but you’re everywhere and back and forth. The guys are, geez, this is all confusing. Okay. So the essence of blitzkrieg, you see how it’s going. You create many opportunities to penetrate these weaknesses again and again, exploit those opportunities, and in a sense very simple in the implication.
The idea, I don’t care whether you want to use “infiltrate,” “penetrate,” or “get inside his system.” You generate those many moral, mental, physical, non-cooperative centers of gravity. And then if you can do that, then you can seize those things that he depends upon.
Those things you depend upon, what is that? We’ve been saying it yesterday and tonight. What is that? Those are the vulnerabilities, critical vulnerabilities, those things they depend upon. That’s vulnerability.
But you’ve got to be able to pull them down and expose those vulnerabilities before you can get to them. Otherwise, if he knows they’re vulnerabilities, he’s going to defend against them. If you don’t go through his weakness to expose him, you’re going to have a tough time.