Operations Research Office and Research Analysis Corporation

Introduction

In discussing the early days of operations research in the United Kingdom, Blackett (1962) notes:

The Armed Services have for many decades made use of civilian scientists for the production of new weapons and vehicles of war, whereas the tactical and strategical use of these weapons and vehicles has been until recently almost exclusively a matter for the uniformed Service personnel. During the first years of the Second World War circumstances arose in which it was found that civilian scientists could sometimes play an important role in the study of tactics and strategy. The essential feature of these new circumstances was the very rapid introduction of new weapons and devices, preeminently radar, into the Services at a time both of great military difficulty and of such rapid expansion that the specialist officers of the Armed Services, who in less strenuous times can and do adequately compete with the problems raised, found themselves often quite unable to do so. I will...