![]() After hostilities began, the Germans and the French sought to destroy each other’s armies via maneuver at the operational level. 3 Moreover, because the combatants did not understand the effects new weapons would have, military tactics had barely changed since the 19 t h century. ![]() Military leaders had already seen some of these tools in action, but few realized the nature or the magnitude of the impact that increased firepower would have on warfare between peer adversaries. A great deal of new military technology-such as scientific artillery, the machine gun, motor vehicles, and barbed wire-had developed in the years before 1914. ![]() Four long years later, the war on the Western Front bore even less resemblance to the vision held before August 1914.īefore combat began, military leaders understood that war was changing. After 4 months, they had settled into trench warfare that bore little resemblance to the war they had prepared for. They left for what most of them believed would be a short conflict, one decided by the power of the offensive. In summer 1914, young men across Europe marched to war. The result was a race between combatants to adapt faster than their adversaries. After the emergence of trench warfare, both sides quickly began adjusting their technology, tactics, and organizations in an attempt to achieve an operational breakthrough. Williamson Murray’s Military Adaptation in War opens by stating that “adaptation in war represents one of the most persistent, yet rarely examined problems that military institutions confront” and that “one of the foremost attributes of military effectiveness must lie in the ability of armies, navies, or air forces to recognize and adapt to the actual conditions of combat.” 2 A short study of warfare on the Western Front during World War I showcases adaptation’s importance. ![]() 1 The growing role software plays in military technology could augment the speed of adaptation, but to capture such advantages, the joint force must invest in its digital workforce and infrastructure. The ability to adapt more quickly than an adversary gives a force a significant advantage. Their organization, tactics, and weapons are not optimally matched to their environment or their enemies. In wars, militaries rarely start out perfectly suited for the challenges they will encounter. ![]()
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