Book Reviews near-omnipotent visibility on every opera-

tional and tactical action taken. The United

States’ futuristic defense technologies and plat-
Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the forms of today, from the DDG 1000 guided
Next World War missile destroyers to F-35 fifth generation
fighters, are but obsolete relics, having proven
By P.W. Singer and August Cole less than successful from their first days in
Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin action. Promising to do everything, they did
Harcourt, 2015
very little well.
416 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0544142848
And what is worse, when called into the
fray America’s most advanced weaponry, in
addition to supplies of chemical and biologi-
cal soldier enhancements, are either fully com-
REVIEWED BY BRENDAN ORINO promised or knocked offline by their own hi-
tech nature or exposure to foreign supply

T
he year is 2035 and Chinese strategic chains. In a world where Google Glass equiva-
patience has finally paid off. After lents are as ubiquitous as smart phones and
decades of standing by, watching the cocktails of tailored stimulants have replaced
United States parade its naval assets unim- caffeine (although coffee is still downed by the
peded through the Pacific and park its aircraft kitsch mugful), greater connectivity and glo-
and personnel in its own strategic backyard, balization are not the panacea many still cast
the Directorate—an alliance of convenience them as today. Instead, bringing countries like
between China and its very junior partner China into the international fold has given it
Russia—strikes a near-fatal blow against surreptitious access through network-depen-
America’s technologically advanced, but net- dent hardware and domestic manufacturing
work dependent, global defense enterprise. In facilities. Just as scary, China has usurped the
search of natural resources and hungry for the employment of autonomous, robotic weap-
international prestige denied to them for ons—a field in which America once domi-
years, revenge has been a long time coming. nated—utilizing swarm after swarm of quad-
This is the setting for P.W. Singer and copters and autonomous torpedoes where
August Cole’s forthcoming novel, Ghost Fleet. helicopter gunships and submarines once
Drawing from their work on emerging military reigned supreme. They have also managed to
technology, new domains of conflict, and perfect the tracking of nuclear reactors at sea
future warfare concepts, the authors open with to give its anti-ship missiles pinpoint accuracy,
a dystopian display of American military and space-based lasers make anti-satellite
might, where everything that could go wrong operations a breeze.
d o e s a n d i n w h i c h t h e a d ve r s a r y h a s But even on the edge of defeat, Americans
prove resilient and even devious, their exploits
playing out in odes to American wars of the
Brendan Orino is a Washington, D.C.-based past and intelligence tradecraft reminiscent
researcher on national security issues.
only of James Bond’s dreams. After his and his

PRISM 5, no . 3 BOOK REVIEWS | 175

crew’s escape from China’s surprise attack on nearly every domain—space, air, sea, land, and
Pearl Harbor, Commander Jamie Simmons cyber. This control puts our nation’s aforemen-
becomes a cause célèbre among his reeling tioned strengths and trends in a different, less
Navy comrades and a despondent public. A attractive light. What happens when American
female Marine leads a rag tag Hawaiian insur- military networks, systems, and weapons stop
gency against Directorate occupation, keeping functioning? Could our forces really fall back
in mind lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan, to non-networked communications (think let-
and even calling themselves mujahedeen. ters and flag signals)? Could our warships
Civilians play their part as well, from a bril- navigate effectively without the global posi-
liant energy scientist looking to revive the tioning system? Failure to adapt is certainly a
energy zapping rail-gun to a lone assassin, danger for the military, but so too is any over-
picking off high-profile Chinese citizens and reliance on technology.
soldiers to sow fear in their ranks. More fundamental and basic skills, how-
Other American strengths do not go ever, are on display when the “Ghost Fleet,”
underestimated. Silicon Valley wiz-kids and non-nuclear, aging, and outdated ships from
genius computer programmers seek to topple the 2010s, is called into action. Sailors,
the Directorate’s cyber capabilities just for the marines, soldiers, and airmen are put to the
challenge, and companies like Wal-Mart turn test, forced to operate without satellite com-
their vaunted logistics operations into weap- munications, advanced command and control
ons of efficiency. Anonymous, the interna- and targeting systems, and guided weaponry.
tional network of hactivists (perhaps one and Face-to-face with an enemy operating near-
the same as those patriotic Silicon Valley peer stealth platforms—probably made from
nerds), does digital battle with Hainan, stolen American designs—modern naval ves-
although an actual alliance with the United sels, and effective cyber operations, the United
States seems dubious. States is no longer up against the once-
Woven into this thriller are attempts to maligned yet effectively persistent insurgents
put in better perspective potential wars of the of the Middle East. With its technological over-
future, their complexity, and our own vulner- match diminished, America is fighting a very
abilities. What is made quite plain is that while different war.
American technological advantage, business And while some things in this war are dif-
acumen, and scientific expertise are world ferent, many others stay the same, albeit with
class, their continued dominance, and more various twists. Predictably, privateers appear
worryingly their excellence, is not inevitable. ready to aid the American military effort,
Enemies are more than capable of hacking although this time they are financed by one of
American government networks, stealing the world’s richest men, sporting a diamond
weapons plans from defense contractors, and covered spaceship. Despite his individual
exfiltrating sensitive data from private eccentricity, he still finds inspiration in one of
American firms, putting national security at the most fearsome, but infamous contractors
risk. of wars past—Blackwater. Intelligence gather-
Singer and Cole open with a terrifying ing goes much the same way, but instead of
salvo, one in which America’s enemies control listening in on phone calls or intercepting

176 | BOOK REVIEWS PRISM 5, no . 3

cables, the enemy is monitoring social media In their not-so-veiled criticism of today’s
accounts to track fleet movements. Remember military investments, Singer and Cole, both
those Apache helicopters destroyed by Iraqi students of trends in military weaponry, kit,
insurgents in 2007 after American soldiers and communications, question the required
posted geotagged photos to the web? “jointness” of large acquisition projects that
Of course, the enduring human elements water down their technical breakthroughs for
of conflict are not forgotten. The sorrow of the sake of interoperability and an overly
watching spouses, siblings, and parents ship broad array of requirements. But they are sure
off for the unknown is as heartbreaking as to highlight promising research in other areas
ever. But their sorrow is only matched by the with potentially breakthrough effects: wearable
elation upon their return, and the true despair electronics, nanotechnology, 3-D printing,
when some do not. The family drama is real, advanced textiles, and robotics are only a few
but so is the sense of individual and collective among them. To their credit, they are also sure
duty, sacrifice, and fraternity. What’s different, to note larger demographic trends, particularly
however, is who makes up this force of the among the millennial generation, and the
future: gay men and women, female generals impact they will have on the force of the
and admirals, a large number of Hispanics and future.
Asians. Singer and Cole are right to point out As they repeatedly harken back to previ-
that change in the ranks impacts the health of ous conflict, Singer and Cole insist that this
the force; in the end, it’s not just what equip- new fighting force truly internalize some of the
ment or weapons are being fielded, but how most glaring lessons of wars past. In an
they are being operated and by whom. attempt to keep history from repeating—or
With nearly 350 footnotes, this work of even rhyming, for that matter—leaders need to
fiction draws on the forefront of military sci- have a keen sense of history and its implica-
ence, research, and development. But what tions for future conflict. Technology and those
makes this work special is the authors’ projec- who wield it may change, but those who
tions 20 years into the future; while it’s true neglect to understand the past are often
that today’s military tries to think that far doomed to repeat it. In the oft-quoted words
ahead, official reports do not always do cre- of Sun Tzu, a strategist whose wisdom perme-
ative justice to the tools at our service-mem- ates the pages of Ghost Fleet, “He will win
bers disposal. Uninhibited by the budget bat- who, prepared himself, waits to take the
tles on Capitol Hill, the molasses-slow enemy unprepared.”
acquisitions process at the Pentagon, or the Instead of tackling the revolution in mili-
general political gridlock that pervades D.C., tary affairs, third offset, Moore’s law, demo-
Singer and Cole bring their knowledge to bear graphics or other theories of technological
in imaginative and original ways. To quote revolution and military transformation in iso-
their own Pushkin-loving Russian colonel, “If lation, Ghost Fleet provides a glimpse of an
there’s one thing I am going to teach you, it’s adaptive, advanced, and complex force put to
to stop thinking that things can work only the the test when its strengths become weaknesses.
way you’ve been told they’re supposed to. You The authors’ flare for action and adventure,
can’t win a war that way.” combining the human experience of war with

PRISM 5, no . 3 BOOK REVIEWS | 177

a respect for groundbreaking science and an
appreciation for history, makes the story all the
more ambitious. Besides, it never hurts that
the good guys mount a comeback. PRISM

178 | BOOK REVIEWS PRISM 5, no . 3