INNOVATION

Innovation from the Roman Legions to the Modern US Air Force



Innovation from the Roman Legions to the Modern US Air Force

Introduction

Innovation is the successful application of new ideas, techniques, methods and technologies in order to produce some measure of incontrovertible benefit over essential concepts. Innovation involves using creativity to produce solutions that differ from the status quo; however, innovation is greater than the act of simply developing new ideas—it are the successful application and the diffusion of these ideas throughout society. Similarly, we can see the innovation in military, as well. As, previously there were Roman Legions, but now the innovation took place in military and is transformed into Modern US Air Force.

Discussion

The Roman legion was the military unit of infantry vital Ancient Rome. It consisted of a heavy body of some 4,200 infantry men, according to ancient historian Polybius, which eventually would reach between 5,200 and 6,000 troops of infantry and 300 cavalry for a total of between 6,000 and 6,300 troops, as he tells us Livy. The legions assigned a name and number, identified nearly 50, but never came to be so many at one time in the history of Rome. Usually there were 28 legions with their auxiliaries and recruited more according to the needs and situation at the time. It considered the most effective military unit that has gone through the annals of mankind, as it was the machine that drives the most powerful empire in history, the magnificent Roman Empire, whose fame and importance come before and is still studied by many.

Originally, at the time of kings, the Legion of the Roman army encompassed entirely composed of Roman citizens recruited for weapons. In the field, of battle was the style of the Macedonian phalanx, a formation very close and consistent but low mobility, in which soldiers opposed a front of pikes to the enemy. Nothing changed with the advent of the Roman Republic, in which the Legion divided into two separate legions, each under the command of one of the two consuls. The early years of the Republic was marked by the continual invasions of Roman territory done by the residents of the Urbs. The phalanx formation fully adapted to fight on level ground, so while Rome did not leave Lazio did not change the provisions of the Legion tactics.

It was during the Samnite Wars (intermittent wars between 343 and 290 BC) when the legions organized in a more formal, forced to fight in mountainous terrain unsuitable for the phalanx. It was also then when the campaigns began to be better planned, and strategically consular army divided into two legions. Because, of this system passed the system Phalanx hand pieces and centuries, more versatile and suitable for mountainous terrain.

Later, after the reform of Gaius Marius, adopted the system of cohorts, consisting of about 480 men divided into three maniples of 160 soldiers, as each maniple consisted of two centuries of 80 men. During the Empire (at least since 30 BC until 284 ...