Ghost Fleet—A Novel of the Next World War

The CIA reviewed Peter Singer's book, Ghost Fleet:

In their first novel, Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War, P.W. Singer and August Cole tell the story of a future war between the United States on one side and China and Russia on the other. The authors paint a compelling scenario in which the simmering Cold War turns hot with the opening salvos taking place in outer space and continuing in cyberspace. Malware loaded onto the semiconductor chips of all US military hardware is activated to disable US military communications and weapons systems, giving the Chinese and Russians a decisive advantage. With communications down and most US military equipment disabled, Hawaii is quickly occupied after a successful attack on Pearl Harbor.

As troubling as the loss of the state, the Chinese also have found a way to destroy US nuclear ICBM submarines while they are at sea. With cutting-edge military technologies and the nuclear arsenal partly disabled, the US turns to alternative solutions, including leveraging US companies to make replacement parts using 3D technology. Meanwhile survivors of the attacks on Hawaiian military facilities launch an insurgency that begins to turn the grim situation around with the help of the US Navy’s ghost fleet of decrepit, pre-digital-age war ships, Silicon Valley companies, an adventurous billionaire, and even Anonymous. And as for intelligence, good old fashioned espionage provides the US its first clue of how to reverse the situation—but it isn’t understood until well after the shooting starts.

Singer and Cole’s expertise in the defense world has pundits and strategists alike lauding Ghost Fleet’s accuracy in incorporating real-word emerging trends and technologies into a fictional story. Ghost Fleet’s nearly 400 end-notes, something not often seen in novels, document the years of research the authors did to bring their story close to fact. The authors weave a variety of political tensions, social changes, emerging technologies, and weapons systems now in various stages of development into the narrative. Among the plot drivers are cyber theft of intellectual property, freedom of navigation tensions in the South China Sea, and even diminishing etiquette in the use of personal electronic devices. In addition to the depiction of the future of warfare, glimpses of the future of intelligence are woven throughout.