Ghost Fleet by August Cole and P.W. Singer provides a cursory mention of a variety of topics that are now pertinent in a new age of warfare. Although none of the topics covered in the novel are explored in any sufficient amount of detail, their mention provides the necessary inception to start military leaders thinking about their implications. The book offers a second-rate story which is barely tolerable enough to glue the disparate topics together into a cohesive narrative.
The first area that Ghost Fleet explores is space-warfare. Space is a frontier that was barely breached in the later years of the 20th century, but it will certainly constitute a significant portion of the next conventional war. The opening scenes of the novel see the Chinese military shoot the entire U.S. Military Satellite System out of space. As is the case with much of our technology, we take our Military Satellite System for granted. However Ghost Fleet poses the question: what would we do without it? Everything from communication systems to GPS guidance systems would be unable to function. Although some of our communications systems do not rely on satellites and our troops could maneuver using manual land navigation practices, huge portions of our standard methods of Command and Control used at higher echelons would be useless. In addition many of our weapons capabilities would be useless.
A second topic which the book draws attention to is the the myriad of new reconnaissance and surveillance techniques available to the modern military. Although the United States is familiar with the advantages of using technologically advanced observation techniques against unsophisticated enemies, we have never had to defend against these methods. Singer and Cole do a great job of showing readers how new devices like drones, quadcopters, and other electronic surveillance devices pose a huge problem for any fighter fighting against another modern force. The novel shows how a small band of guerrilla fighters spend a majority of their time and energy avoiding these relatively cheap detection methods. One can only assume that a conventional force would be almost completely unable to avoid these detection systems.
A final point which the book investigates is the pre-planting of deficient electronic chips. The authors suggest that Chinese suppliers would be able to provide American defense companies with sabotaged chips which could destroy the system they were incorporated into. I personally believe that this point is unfounded. Perhaps this idea was meant as a cautionary point against bloated defense contractors and the challenges that globalization imply for military leaders, however I believe that sufficient safeguards exist to prevent such problems from occurring. Defense contracting is such a protected and secretive industry that chips would not be simply ‘pasted’ into designs without being sufficiently vetted. In addition the capability to receive a signal and make a significant change in function (even if only to self-deactivate)would mean the inclusion of a substantial functional group on the chip, and would not be able to be disguised among the valid processes of the electronic.
Overall I found Ghost Fleet to provide a decent exposure to a myriad of new ideas that any military leader operating in the modern world should consider. However I believe the novelization of the ideas takes away from the intellectual reputability of the ideas it presents. I believe that the white papers (here, here, and here) upon which the book is based provides a more in-depth look at the ideas without forcing them into a narrative.
