military doctrine

Screenshot 2026 07 07 at 12.53.01

American thunderbolt

In the first part of our special feature, Graham Goodlad charts the development of America’s air-arm from its earliest beginnings, while in our second article he focuses on the hardware deployed by American forces.

The Blind Strategist: John Boyd and the American Art of War

In his introduction to this exceptionally worthwhile volume, Stephen Robinson describes how, during the Gulf War, General Tommy Franks, a true believer in what had become the US Army’s dominant doctrine of ‘manoeuvre warfare’, formulated what historian Thomas Ricks referred to as ‘perhaps the worst war plan in American history’.