IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jorsoc/v61y2010i1d10.1057_jors.2009.156.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The ‘invisible science’: operational research for the British Armed Forces after 1945

Author

Listed:
  • M W Kirby

    (Lancaster University)

  • M T Godwin

    (Lancaster University)

Abstract

This paper presents an original account of the contribution of operational research (OR) to the formulation of tactics and strategy on behalf of the British Armed Forces in the four decades after 1945. The main focus is on the Cold War in the European theatre, where OR analysts devoted considerable time and effort to the modelling of warfare on behalf of the British Army of the Rhine. In the absence of combat data for nuclear weapons, OR analysts devised a sequence of war games which evolved in conformity with the development of NATO strategy in relation to the Warsaw Pact. Again in the context of the Cold War, the paper analyses the role of OR in relation to the early V bomber force and the introduction of ‘global war studies’ on behalf of the Royal Navy. The paper also comments on the organisational structure of British military OR following on the creation of a centralised OR facility within the Ministry of Defence in 1965. In conclusion, the paper notes the sea-change in military OR following the end of the Cold War in 1990 and the onset of a period of sustained ‘asymmetric’ military operations in the former Yugoslavia, the Middle East and Afghanistan.

Suggested Citation

  • M W Kirby & M T Godwin, 2010. "The ‘invisible science’: operational research for the British Armed Forces after 1945," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 61(1), pages 68-81, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:61:y:2010:i:1:d:10.1057_jors.2009.156
    DOI: 10.1057/jors.2009.156
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/jors.2009.156
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/jors.2009.156?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. R A Forder, 2004. "Operational research in the UK Ministry of Defence: an overview," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 55(4), pages 319-332, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anthony Ween & Peter Dortmans & Nitin Thakur & Cayt Rowe, 2019. "Framing cyber warfare: an analyst’s perspective," The Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation, , vol. 16(3), pages 335-345, July.
    2. R Peng & G Levitin & M Xie & S H Ng, 2011. "Optimal defence of single object with imperfect false targets," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 62(1), pages 134-141, January.
    3. N J Curtis & P J Dortmans & J Ciuk, 2006. "‘Doing the right problem’ versus ‘doing the problem right’: problem structuring within a Land Force environment," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 57(11), pages 1300-1312, November.
    4. P J Dortmans & N J Curtis & N Tri, 2006. "An analytical approach for constructing and measuring concepts," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 57(8), pages 885-891, August.
    5. J Medhurst & I M Stanton & H Bird & A Berry, 2009. "The value of information to decision makers: an experimental approach using card-based decision gaming," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 60(6), pages 747-757, June.
    6. Richard John Ormerod, 2022. "The economic logic of OR consulting practice: Towards a foundational view," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(4), pages 685-707, July.
    7. J Medhurst & I Stanton & A Berry, 2010. "Risk taking by decision makers—using card-based decision gaming to develop models of behaviour," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 61(11), pages 1561-1571, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:61:y:2010:i:1:d:10.1057_jors.2009.156. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.