When exercise habits delay wartime decisions

Wartime commanders can briefly fall back on habits acquired in exercises, even when they are experienced officers. The example concerns HMS Invincible during the Falklands War: after ordering two Sea Dart launches, the captain paused before ordering further missiles. Two had been the usual maximum in an exercise, and recognizing that this limit no longer applied took a moment. Against the heavier attack expected from Soviet forces, a similar hesitation could have been fatal. Training therefore has to account for the difficulty of changing deeply practiced behavior when combat demands something different.