Ghost Fleet (novel)

Last updated

Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War
Ghost Fleet (novel).jpg
First edition
Authors
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt [1]
Publication date
June 30, 2015
Media typePrint
Pages416
ISBN 9780544142848

Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War is a 2015 techno-thriller by P. W. Singer and August Cole. Set in the near future, the book portrays a scenario in which a post-communist China, assisted by Russia, launches a technologically-sophisticated attack against the United States in the Pacific Ocean that leads to the occupation of the Hawaiian Islands.

Contents

Plot

Prior to the main events of the novel, Indonesia collapsed into a failed state after a second war in Timor, and a dirty bomb was detonated in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, which caused a massive spike in the price of oil and the collapse of the House of Saud. [2] [3] [4] A newly-discovered natural gas field in the Mariana Trench provides China with energy security. [5] [6] Popular unrest leads to the removal of the Chinese Communist Party, and China becomes governed by a mix of businessmen and military leaders known as the Directorate. [7] [8] China and Russia have also developed the ability to detect and to track nuclear-powered ships by using Cherenkov radiation, which allows China to effectively neutralize the US Navy's nuclear submarine fleet. [9] China plans to gain control of the third island chain and to secure dominance in the western Pacific Ocean. [10] Meanwhile, the US military is overstretched in terms of manpower and resources from ongoing military operations in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Kenya.

Using a computer virus to infiltrate the computer systems of the Defense Intelligence Agency, China launches a massive cyberattack on the United States that cripples many technologically-sophisticated systems, including the F-35 Lightning, which has been compromised with infected microchips in the supply chain. [11] [12] The attack includes the extensive use of anti-satellite weapons, which leads to the disabling of the Global Positioning System and the loss of several communications and reconnaissance satellites, which are critical to the US military. [3] [6] Russian fighters and drones launch a raid on the US military base in Okinawa, and the US military presence in Japan is neutralized. [6] Supported by Russia, China captures Hawaii after a bloody battle and establishes the Hawaii Special Administrative Zone. [12] [13] [14] The attack leads to the nearly-complete destruction of the US Pacific Fleet. [15]

The titular "Ghost Fleet" refers to the US Navy reserve fleets, which the United States reactivates as a low-tech fallback. [16] [17] The residents of Oʻahu and the surviving US military personnel launch an insurgency, known as the North Shore Mujahideen (NSM), against the Chinese occupiers by using the tactics that have been learned from insurgents during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. [7] [14] On the diplomatic front, the remaining allies of the United States remain neutral in the conflict except for Australia and the United Kingdom, the latter of which endures the secession of Scotland after a second independence referendum, which passed shortly after the attack. As part of what is dubbed a “Nuclear Lend-Lease” program to counter China and Russia’s Cherenkov radiation detection systems, Poland secretly lends several of its diesel-powered submarines to the US Navy in exchange for the delivery of ten B83 thermonuclear bombs to Poland to deter Russia. After the dissolution of NATO, the United States recognizes Greenland's independence from Denmark in exchange for using the fleet of the newly-renamed Kalaallit Nunaat, whose move the ghost fleet through the Northwest Passage.

On the civilian front, private companies, such as Walmart, establish a supply chain using 3D printing technology to provide supplies for the war effort, and the US government initiates a program to recycle old microchips to negate the effects of the infected ones from China. An eccentric Silicon Valley billionaire uses his personal wealth and resources to seize control of the Chinese space station and neutralize China's anti-satellite systems by a private military company in his employ. Simultaneously, another Silicon Valley magnate wages his own separate campaign against China by using his connections to get into contact with the hacktivist group Anonymous. The group manages to launch its own cyberattack, which cripples the Directorate's cyberwarfare capabilities indefinitely. The US military ultimately manages to liberate Hawaii with the aid by the Ghost Fleet, the 82nd Airborne Division, the US Marine Corps, the US Special Operations Command, SEAL Team Six, Polish Special Forces JW Formoza, and aircraft reactivated from the US Air Force boneyard. The war ends in a status quo ante bellum , with both the United States and the Directorate recovering from the effects of the conflict. However, Russia breaks up into a collection of smaller states after a coup d'état against the Russian president (heavily implied to be Vladimir Putin) as a result of public opposition to Russia's participation in the war (the "Russian People's Republic").

One of the subplots in the story revolves around Carrie Shin, a surf instructor at the Moana Surfrider Hotel. She had been engaged to a fighter pilot in the US Marine Corps and was in the process of preparing for her wedding when the invasion of Hawaii began. It is implied that she had been the victim of systematic sexual and physical abuse at the hands of her father and was recovering with the help of her fiancé. He is subsequently killed during the invasion when his F-35 is compromised by Chinese malware. Now psychologically changed, she begins a systematic campaign of killing the Chinese soldiers occupying Honolulu, which earns her the moniker the "Black Widow." Her killings come to the attention of both General Yu Xilai, the Chinese commander of the occupation, and his subordinate, Russian Colonel Vladimir Markov, who is constantly belittled and dismissed by Yu as incompetent for being unable to suppress the insurgency. Shin and Markov gain a grudging respect for one another, and she feigns being captured to get close to Yu, whom she strangles to death at his headquarters. Markov watches with silent consent just as the US counterattack begins.

Characters

Technology

The authors explicitly wrote Ghost Fleet with the goal of exploring how new technological developments might impact a future war. [7] [21] Technologies explored include electromagnetic railguns, swarm UAVs, optical head-mounted display glasses, space-based weaponry and performance-enhancing stimulants. [17] [21] The book includes over 400 endnotes. [14]

Reception

Ghost Fleet has been praised as a useful exploration of future conflict and has been recommended by leaders of the United States military as recommended reading for troops. [12] [22] Admiral James Stavridis called the book "A startling blueprint for the wars of the future and therefore needs to be read now!" [23]

Attention from Indonesian opposition

The Indonesian opposition leader Prabowo Subianto cited a detail in Ghost Fleet regarding Indonesia's hypothetical disintegration in 2030 because of a second Timorese conflict during a Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) assembly speech on 18 September 2017 and treated the novel as an academic study. A video clip of the speech was posted to Gerindra's official Facebook page on 18 March 2018, which subsequently attracted criticism and derision. [24] [25] Singer remarked on Twitter over Prabowo's enthusiasm on the book's particular detail: "There have been many unexpected twists and turns from this book experience, but this may take the cake." [26]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Hunt for Red October</i> 1984 novel by Tom Clancy

The Hunt for Red October is the debut novel by American author Tom Clancy, first published on October 1, 1984, by the Naval Institute Press. It depicts Soviet submarine captain Marko Ramius as he seemingly goes rogue with his country's cutting-edge ballistic missile submarine Red October, and marks the first appearance of Clancy's most popular fictional character, Jack Ryan, an analyst working for the Central Intelligence Agency, as he must prove his theory that Ramius is intending to defect to the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naval warfare</span> Combat involving sea-going ships

Naval warfare is combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other battlespace involving a major body of water such as a large lake or wide river. Battles have been fought on water for more than 3,000 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pavel Cherenkov</span> Soviet physicist (1904–1990)

Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov was a Soviet physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 1958 with Ilya Frank and Igor Tamm for the discovery of Cherenkov radiation, made in 1934.

The Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) is the world's largest international maritime warfare exercise. RIMPAC is held biennially during June and July of even-numbered years from Honolulu, Hawaii, with the exception of 2020 where it was held in August. It is hosted and administered by the United States Navy's Indo-Pacific Command, headquartered at Pearl Harbor, in conjunction with the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, and Hawaii National Guard forces under the control of the Governor of Hawaii.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Indo-Pacific Command</span> Unified combatant command of the United States Armed Forces responsible for the Indo-Pacific region

The United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) is the unified combatant command of the United States Armed Forces responsible for the Indo-Pacific region.

<i>The Bear and the Dragon</i> 2000 novel by Tom Clancy

The Bear and the Dragon is a techno-thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and released on August 21, 2000. A direct sequel to Executive Orders (1996), President Jack Ryan deals with a war between Russia and China, referred respectively in the title as the Russian Bear and the Chinese Dragon. At over 1,028 pages, it is Clancy's longest novel. The book debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reserve fleet</span> Collection of inactive naval vessels

A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed; they are partially or fully decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothballs" or "mothballed". In earlier times, especially in British usage, the ships were said to be "laid up in ordinary".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Taiwan Strait Crisis</span> 1954–1955 military conflict between the PRC and ROC

The First Taiwan Strait Crisis was a brief armed conflict between the Communist People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Nationalist Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. The conflict focused on several groups of islands in the Taiwan Strait that were held by the ROC but were located only a few miles from mainland China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">P. W. Singer</span> American political scientist

Peter Warren Singer is an American political scientist, an international relations scholar and a specialist on 21st-century warfare. He is a New York Times bestselling author of both nonfiction and fiction, who has been described in The Wall Street Journal as "the premier futurist in the national-security environment".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prabowo Subianto</span> Indonesian minister and politician (born 1951)

Prabowo Subianto Djojohadikusumo is an Indonesian politician, businessman and retired honorary army general, who has served as the 26th Indonesian Minister of Defense since 2019. Prabowo Subianto in 1983 married Titiek Suharto, the late President Suharto's second daughter. In 1998, he was discharged from the military and subsequently banned from entering the United States for allegedly committing human rights violations.

The Axis of Time trilogy is an alternative history series of novels written by Australian journalist and author John Birmingham, from Macmillan Publishing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solomon Islands campaign</span> Major campaign of the Pacific War of World War II

The Solomon Islands campaign was a major campaign of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign began with Japanese landings and capture of several areas in the British Solomon Islands and Bougainville, in the Territory of New Guinea, during the first six months of 1942. The Japanese occupied these locations and began the construction of several naval and air bases with the goals of protecting the flank of the Japanese offensive in New Guinea, establishing a security barrier for the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain, and providing bases for interdicting supply lines between the Allied powers of the United States and Australia and New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space command</span>

A space command is a military organization with responsibility for space operations and warfare. A space command is typically a joint organization or organized within a larger military branch and is distinct from a fully independent space force. The world's first space command, the United States' Air Force Space Command was established in 1982 and later became the United States Space Force in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prelude to the attack on Pearl Harbor</span>

A series of events led to the attack on Pearl Harbor. War between the Empire of Japan and the United States was a possibility each nation's military forces had planned for after World War I. The expansion of American territories in the Pacific had been a threat to Japan since the 1890s, but real tensions did not begin until the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indonesia–Russia relations</span> Bilateral relations

Indonesia–Russia relations are the bilateral relations between Indonesia and Russia. Indonesia and the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations in 1950. Russia has an embassy in Jakarta, and Indonesia has an embassy in Moscow along with a consulate general in Saint Petersburg. Both countries are members of the APEC and G-20.

<i>The Third World War</i> (novel) 2003 book by Humphrey Hawksley

The Third World War is an apocalyptic novel, published in 2003 by the British journalist and author Humphrey Hawksley, portraying the modern world as it deals with the ever-worsening geopolitical situation.

<i>Threat Vector</i> 2012 techno-thriller novel by Tom Clancy

Threat Vector is a techno-thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and co-written with Mark Greaney, and published on December 4, 2012. A direct sequel to Locked On (2011), President Jack Ryan and The Campus must prevent a Chinese expansionist government from enacting war in the South China Sea. The book debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space force</span> Military branch for space warfare

A space force is a military branch of a nation's armed forces that conducts military operations in outer space and space warfare. The world's first space force was the Russian Space Forces, established in 1992 as an independent military service. However, it lost its independence twice, first being absorbed into the Strategic Rocket Forces from 1997–2001 and 2001–2011, then it merged with the Russian Air Force to form the Russian Aerospace Forces in 2015, where it now exists as a sub-branch. As of 2024 the world's only independent space force is the United States Space Force.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan</span> Indonesian politician (born 1947)

Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan is an Indonesian politician, businessman, and retired four-star Army general who has been serving as Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment since October 2019. He previously served various posts in his political career, including the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs from July 2016 to October 2019, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs from August 2015 to July 2016 and Chief of Staff to President Joko Widodo. He was also Minister of Trade and Industry in President Abdurrahman Wahid's cabinet and Indonesian Ambassador to Singapore from 1999 to 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono</span> Indonesian politician (born 1978)

Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, more commonly referred to as AHY, is an Indonesian politician and former army major who is currently serving as the leader of the Democratic Party. Serving in the Army from 2000 until 2016, he is the executive director of the Yudhoyono Institute and founder of the Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono Foundation. He is the son of former Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, more commonly known as SBY.

References

  1. ↑ "Ghost Fleet - Kirkus Review". Kirkus Reviews. April 16, 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
  2. ↑ Eisler, David (July 3, 2016). "'Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War' by P. W. Singer & August Cole". The Huffington Post . Like many "future history" novels, the authors weave projected global developments into the narrative through dialogue and matter-of-fact references, from the evolution of the global reserve currency beyond the dollar to the detonation of a dirty bomb in Saudi Arabia.
  3. 1 2 Zappone, Chris (August 24, 2015). "Ghost Fleet: World War III techno-thriller shows Australia's worst nightmare". Sydney Morning Herald .
  4. ↑ Lowry, Bob (April 24, 2017). "Is Indonesia A Fragile State?". Australian Institute of International Affairs. In the novel Ghost Fleet, about China seizing the third island chain encompassing Hawaii and the subsequent counter-offensive, there is casual reference to Indonesia collapsing into anarchy and fragmentation after a second Timor war.
  5. ↑ Carpenter, Julie (May 23, 2016). "Shaping the Future of War: The Important Questions". Los Angeles Review of Books . Triggered by a Chinese gas discovery near the Mariana Trench, the Chinese government, known here as the Directorate, has enough power and economic leverage to act without fear of repercussions (in the form of sanctions) from the United States.
  6. 1 2 3 de Luce, Dan (May 15, 2016). "A Novel About War With China Strikes a Chord at the Pentagon". Foreign Policy . Retrieved July 5, 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 "Chronicle of a war foretold". The Economist . June 27, 2015. Archived from the original on June 28, 2015.
  8. ↑ Brantly, Aaron (October 23, 2015). "Book Review: Ghost Fleet – Scary, Accessible, Entertaining and Plausible – The Future Implications of Cyber Attacks". United States Army. Starting their story in a future that finds the United States in confusing geopolitical world recovering from economic collapse and war where the Chinese Communist Party has been replaced by an ominously named plutocratic-military junta called the Directorate.
  9. ↑ Farley, Robert (August 24, 2015). "Ghost Fleet and the Causes of War". The Diplomat . Retrieved July 5, 2017.
  10. ↑ Burke, Justin (September 26, 2015). "Singer and Cole's Ghost Fleet imagines the next global conflict". The Australian .
  11. ↑ Till, Geoffrey. "Warning of Wars to Come - A Review of Ghost Fleet by Peter Singer and August Cole". King's College London . Retrieved July 5, 2017. First and foremost, the US really has to bite the bullet and spend enough to retain the cutting edge in military and to avoid such obvious strategic vulnerabilities as malware in the microchips that the Chinese now supply, even to US arms firms responsible for critical weapon systems like the F-35.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Korb, Lawrence J. (June 20, 2015). "'Ghost Fleet' offers realistic look at an imagined war". The Navy Times .
  13. 1 2 Garrett-Rempel, Danny (2015). "P.W. Singer and August Cole. Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2015". Journal of Military and Strategic Studies. p. 4. ISSN   1488-559X. As Russian advisor to the Chinese occupation forces in the "Hawaii Special Administrative Zone," General Vladimir Markov cautions his Chinese superior, General Yu, of the folly of failing to understand the insurgency, composed of US Marines fighting under the moniker of the North Shore Mujahedeen (263).
  14. 1 2 3 Stratford, Darby (May 29, 2016). "Ghost Fleet—A Novel of the Next World War". Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original on December 16, 2016.
  15. ↑ Beckhusen, Robert (July 15, 2015). "Could China defeat America in World War III?". The Week .
  16. ↑ Pentland, William (July 15, 2015). "Ghost Fleet: Military Geeks Imagine The Next World War". Forbes . In the aftermath of the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Navy is forced to recommission warfighting vessels from the so-called "ghost fleet." Ergo the book's title.
  17. 1 2 Bearden, Gary (July 7, 2015). "Book Review: Ghost Fleet and the Future of Great Power War". The Diplomat . Retrieved July 5, 2017.
  18. 1 2 Dvorsky, George (June 25, 2015). "How Ghost Fleet Nails The Perfect Vision of World War III". io9.
  19. ↑ Carter, Stephen L. (July 14, 2015). "The Hackers Behind Pages of 'Ghost Fleet'". Bloomberg News.
  20. ↑ Singer, P.W.; Cole, August (June 30, 2015). "The Space Pirates of World War III". Vice Media.
  21. 1 2 Singer, P.W.; Cole, August (June 30, 2015). "How to Write About World War III". The Atlantic.
  22. ↑ "Tech thriller describes new Pearl Harbor attack, this time by China". The Japan Times . December 8, 2016. Several senior U.S. military officials have told their troops to read the novel, which was published last year and written by August Cole and P.W. Singer.
  23. ↑ "Reviews". Ghost Fleet Book. Retrieved July 5, 2017.
  24. ↑ Wicaksono, Bayu Adi (March 22, 2018). "Pidato Ramal Indonesia Bubar 2030, Prabowo Dibully". Viva Media Baru. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
  25. ↑ "The 'study' Prabowo said predicted Indonesia would dissolve by 2030 is actually a sci-fi techno-thriller called 'Ghost Fleet'". Coconuts Jakarta. March 21, 2018. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
  26. ↑ Nugroho, Bagus Prihantoro (March 22, 2018). "Penulis Novel 'Ghost Fleet' Posting Foto Prabowo di Twitter". detikcom. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.