Book Description

The concept of using natural evolution as an analogy for how modem organizations can adapt to a chaotic, rapidly changing world situation is currently in vogue in the business world. This paper will examine whether the chaotic evolutionary development model is pertinent to the US military's attempt to adapt to the uncertain national security environment of the post Cold War world. The paper will look at the historical example of the development of infrared (IR) systems for tactical aviation in order to see how the natural evolution model can be applied to the development of military systems. The evolutionary development of IR systems will be 'benchmarked' against the more traditional planned development of radar systems. The theme of the paper is that the chaotic evolutionary development of IR systems has been successful and has had a significant effect on the current state of air operations. The general conclusion of the paper is that the natural evolution development model has many analogies to the way IR systems were developed and employed and contains many useful insights to consider for future development. Understanding this analogy and its limits may hold the key for developing a more flexible development system that will be better able to adapt to the uncertain security environment of the future. In the epilogue, the paper will address how such evolutionary development might be applied to the attempt to plan an information-based Revolution in Military Affairs.