Mention the word ‘military’ and what springs to mind? Regimented, disciplined, trained groups of people who do what they are told and follow orders? What could they possibly teach us about Agile? Bruce will take you through an approach that the air force used to tap into the skills of small, highly motivated and successful teams to develop winning tactics – tactics that allowed them to win against adversaries with newer, more manoeuvrable aircraft equipped with more powerful engines, better radars and longer range weapons. Using the construct of John Boyd’s OODA loop, Bruce will show you how the Agile principles of Transparency, Inspection and Adaptation have been applied successfully in an arena well outside of software development.

1. Flying and Fighting:
Agile Aircraft – Agile Team
Bruce Keightley
Assurity

2. Flying and Fighting
Agile aircraft or Agile Team?

3. 3
What’s the Plan?
• Decision making
• Rolling Wave Planning
• How Radar Works
• Developing New Tactics
• Continuous Improvement
• Winning Against the Odds

4. 4
Welcome to the Military
Perception
• Disciplined
• Regimented
• Obedient
• Trained to act/react

5. 5
Initial Training
Reinforces the perception
• Lots of yelling and shouting
• Pointless activities
• Arbitrary punishment

6. 6
Why?
What happens when life threatened?
• Freeze
• Flight
• Fight
Survive the first seconds/minutes of real combat
• Don’t freeze
• Don’t run
Act/React

7. 7
Advanced Training
Focus on Reacting
• Taking the initiative
• Winning

8. 8
Wartime Reality
“No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy”
Helmuth von Moltke (the elder)
1800-1891
Chief of Staff, Prussian Army
• Extensive preparation for all conceivable events
• Agility of action
“Everyone has a plan, until they’re punched in the
face” Mike Tyson

9. 9
John Boyd’s OODA Loop
Decision making process
Recurring cycle

10. 10
Winning Using the OODA Loop
Your OODA loop must run faster than your opponent’s
Get your opponent reacting to something you’re not doing anymore
Acts inappropriately / becomes predictable
Can be beaten
Commercial use:
Litigation
Business
Strategy

11. 11
Rolling Wave Planning in the Air Force
Operational Planning process
• Annual plan
• Monthly plan
• Daily Plan
• Actual missions
“Planning is everything.”
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

12. 12
Annual Plan
Broken up into monthly activities
Exercises / deployments
Resource allocation
Weapons
Flying hours
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Aust F-18 FCP IADS
Flares Flares Flares
110 220 350 185 225 200 120 340 190 370 210 180

13. 13
Monthly Plan
Daily flying rate
Activity
June
1 Weekend
2 "
3 12 x 1v1 ACM 9.6
4 12 x 1v1 ACM 9.6
5 12 x 1v1 ACM 9.6
6 12 x 2v2 ACM 9.6
7 12 x 2v2 ACM 9.6
8 Weekend
9 "
10 12 x 2v2 ACM 9.6
11 12 x 2v2 ACM 9.6
12 12 x 2v2 ACM 9.6
13 12 x 4v2 ACM 12.0
14 12 x 4v2 ACM 12.0
15 Weekend
16 "
17 12 x 4v2 ACM 12.0
18 12 x 1v1 DACM 9.6
19 12 x 1v1 DACM 9.6
20 12 x 2v2 DACM 9.6
21 12 x 2v2 DACM 9.6
22 Weekend
23 "
24 12 x 2v2 DACM 9.6
25 12 x 4v2 DACM 9.6
26 12 x 4v2 DACM 9.6
27 12 x 6v4 DACM 9.6
28 12 x 6v4 DACM 9.6
29 Weekend
30 "
199.2

14. 14
Daily Flying Programme
Morning briefing
Specific
People
Aircraft
Weapons
Area
Activity
Timing
13 Jun
Serial A/C Crew Callsign Ex/Area Fuel Wpns Take-off Land
1 01 Keightley Red 4v2 Alpha 5200 AIM 9 0900 0950
2 11 Read " " " " " "
3 05 Barlow " " " " " "
4 03 Jackson " " " " " "
5 02 Fellowes Amber 2v4 Bravo " " 0905 0955
6 04 Barnes " " " " " "
7 01 Taylor Red 4v2 Alpha 5200 " 1300 1350
8 11 Compain " " " " " "
9 05 Lauder " " " " " "
10 03 Keith " " " " " "
11 02 Easthope Amber 2v4 Bravo " " 1305 1355
12 04 Styles " " " " " "

15. 15
Mission
Planned
Briefed
Flown
Debriefed

16. 16
Planning – 2 Week Exercise
F-18 Hornet vs A-4K Skyhawk
SWOT analysis
• Strengths - ours/theirs
• Weaknesses – ours/theirs
• Opportunities
• What are the threats

17. 17
Our Strengths
Small aircraft
• Hard to see on radar and with the Mk. 1 eyeball
Radar warning capability
We are world-class pilots
There are only 12 of us – we are a very tight Team
We’re very sneaky
We hate to lose
• Specially to the Aussies

18. 18
Our Weaknesses
Old aircraft
Skyhawk has
• Limited radar performance
• Short range weapons
• Poor sustained turn performance
• Low top speed

19. 19
Opportunities
We’re very very cunning … so let’s surprise them
They are predictable:
• In the way they fly their aircraft
• In the way they employ their missiles
They are a larger air force, so they can’t adapt quickly – we aren’t and we can

20. 20
Threats F-18 has:
• Better radar
• Better sustained turn capability
• Better and longer range weapons
• Supersonic

21. 21
The Analysis?
Sometimes it sucks to be us
• They can see us on radar before we can see them
• They can launch their missiles before we can launch
ours
• They can turn more tightly than us
• We might as well go home because they are going to
wipe the floor with us

22. 22
Or Are They?
• Their radar has limitations
• Their missiles have weaknesses
• Their Rules of Engagement are strict
• Their operating procedures are not flexible

23. 23
Radar 101
+60°
-60°

24. 24
Radar 101
40

25. 25
Radar 101
40

26. 26
Missiles 101
Semi-active (has no radar)
Needs aircraft to ‘illuminate’ target
Homes on reflected radar energy
Target must be tracked until missile hits
Lose radar lock – missile misses

27. 27
Tactics 101
20

28. 28
Radar Intercept
60 nm
80 80

29. 29
Radar Intercept
30 nm
80 80

30. 30
Radar Intercept
30 nm
40 40

31. 31
Radar Intercept
20 nm
40 40

32. 32
Radar Intercept
15 nm
40 40

33. 33
Radar Intercept
15 nm
40 40

34. 34
Time to Get Cunning
Designated pairs
• No ego, no rank
Try out tactics against each other
Practice the ones that work
Refine/adjust/drop
What ifs?

35. 35
What We Came Up With
Hand grenade
Drag and bag
What the … ?
Do I feel lucky?

36. 36
Exercise Hot Wash-up
Review of the plan
Review of the conduct
What worked
What didn’t
What didn’t help
What do we do now/next?

37. 37
Reality Check
• There will always be better aircraft, weapons and
equipment
• If it ain’t broke … doing the same thing makes us
predictable
• Doing things differently and adapting quickly gives us
an edge
• Better people are the difference
• Results against F18?

38. 38
OODA Loop – So What?
• Reminiscing is fine but what does the OODA Loop have to do with you?
• Tactical level – developing new features
• Operational level – developing new products
• Strategic level – heading in a new direction
• How quick is you decision making process?
• How quick does it need to be?

39. Questions?
Interactive discussions designed to test knowledge

40. Thanks for listening…
Bruce Keightley
Assurity
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