Institutional Design
At the Diplomat I revisit questions of institutional design and military effectiveness:
Organizational infighting over naval aviation is common, and can have serious negative effects. The Luftwaffe, optimized for tactical and operational support of the Wehrmacht, never worked very well with the German Kriegsmarine, leaving the submarine and surface fleets with a limited picture of the battlespace.
The most famous organizational catastrophe to afflict naval aviation happened in the United Kingdom during the inter-war period. As a result of the brutal bureaucratic infighting between the Royal Navy and the infant Royal Air Force, responsibility for naval aviation fell to the RAF, which had little interest in carrier aircraft. As a result, training, doctrine, and procurement suffered, leaving the Royal Navy’s carrier force ill-prepared for the challenges of World War II, although during the war the relationship between the RAF’s Coastal Command and the Royal Navy became a model for inter-service cooperation.