Yes, I know I am four years late to the party and have been meaning to read this one for years. I finally got my act together this week when the head of a NATO Parliamentary Assembly that was visiting the African Union here in Addis asked me if I'd read Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War. I'd just finished a Q and A with the group on AFRICOM and had spoken at length on maritime security efforts and the Blue Economy in Africa. She noted that when they visited Naples, she'd met ADM Foggo and he'd said what an important novel it was. Well that fortuitous conversation convinced me and I downloaded the story to my Kindle and ripped through in three days!
The premise of the novel is that sometime in the near future China (partnered with Russia) conducts a cyber/space/electronic warfare attack that gives them dominance across the warfare spectrum. Our fleet and air assets are near completely destroyed (with those remaining rendered useless as they are chocked full of compromised Chinese chips). With all our U.S. satellites destroyed, the United States no longer has freedom of movement on land/air/sea.
The heart of the story is how the U.S. fights back--this being a combination of insurgency (in the occupied Hawaiian island), a reconstitution of mothballed ships and aircraft, a private-public wartime industrial partnership, and a murky collaboration with Anonymous hackers. Oh, and with the rail gun--lots of focus on the rail gun. The story moves quickly and I burned through the pages as authors Singer and Cole keep the narrative moving with quick dialogue, myriad Sun-Tzu quotes, and sympathetic characters.
I am sure some might consider this book's scenario far-fetched but consider this quote from the novel:
“Trade is just trade. You know how I made the comparison between us today and the Brits a hundred years back,” said Simmons. “Well, who was Britain’s biggest trading partner before World War One? Germany. Or if you prefer World War Two as a comparison, Germany’s biggest trading partners just before the war were the very neighbors it soon invaded, while the U.S. was Japan’s.”
I won't ruin the ending but here are some of the author's biggest takeaways:
1. the U.S. military industrial complex is over reliant on Chinese/foreign parts
2. the U.S. surface fleet needs railguns, railguns and more railguns.
3. the U.S. surface fleet relies to heavily on technology that could be rendered useless in a concerted electronic attack.
4. Marines would be the best insurgents out there and our enemies' worst nightmare.
5. Chiefs. The Navy will never win a war without chiefs.
My biggest takeaways:
1. This needs to be a movie!
2. I wish there'd been more nautical quotes and less Sun-Tzu:)
NOTE: As I was writing this review I got so excited when my search results for "Ghost Fleet" showed a trailer for an upcoming movie. My hopes were quickly crushed, however, when it turns out this is not an upcoming film adaptation of the novel but instead a documentary uncovering the slavery rampant throughout the Thai fishing industry. While this is certainly an important topic, I had my heart set on seeing this novel on the big screen...maybe one day?
Check out this final piece of a trilogy written by Admiral James G. Foggo where he discusses Africa, Great Power Competition & the #USNavy. #NavyPartnershipshttps://t.co/gNa64q5XEh— U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet (@USNavyEurope) September 26, 2019
About a hundred years back, the British Empire faced a problem much like ours today: How do you police an empire when you’ve got a shrinking economy relative to the world’s and a population no longer so excited to meet those old commitments?”
Page: 22
“Trade is just trade. You know how I made the comparison between us today and the Brits a hundred years back,” said Simmons. “Well, who was Britain’s biggest trading partner before World War One? Germany. Or if you prefer World War Two as a comparison, Germany’s biggest trading partners just before the war were the very neighbors it soon invaded, while the U.S. was Japan’s.”
Page: 183
“We need to become again the country that breaks the hard problems, that sees the virtue in innovation and the reward in risk,” he said. “If we do not succeed, then I worry that all truly is lost.”
Page: 226
Use the normal force to engage; use the extraordinary to win. —SUN-TZU, THE ART OF WAR (Note: This is the motto of the PLA Command Academy in Nanjing, displayed on its library wall.)
Page: 313
The anxiousness he felt at that one missing piece of data flow was a reminder of how quickly people took for granted the sea of information they floated
Key References (for further study)
NPS Launches Campus-Wide Course in Great Power Competition
This Is Not a Great-Power Competition Why the Term Doesn’t Capture Today’s Reality
Over Our Heads: How the Great Power Competition Is Extending Into Space (From RealClearDefense)
The New Concept Everyone in Washington Is Talking About
What’s Great Power Competition? No One Really Knows
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