Ghost fleet
by P. W. Singer · first published 2015
48% recommend52% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Near-future techno-thriller about a US versus China and Russia war, praised as a fast, engaging read that makes modern military technology and its vulnerabilities, like GPS jamming, feel concrete and unsettling.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"What will the next global conflict look like? Find out in this ripping, near-futuristic thriller. The United States, China, and Russia eye each other across a twenty-first century version of the Cold War, which suddenly heats up at sea, on land, in the air, in outer space, and in cyberspace. The fighting involves everything from stealthy robotic-drone strikes to old warships from the navy's "ghost fleet." Fighter pilots unleash a Pearl Harbor-style attack; American veterans become low-tech insurgents; teenage hackers battle in digital playgrounds; Silicon Valley billionaires mobilize for cybe
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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…the Marines: GATES OF FIRE: AN EPIC NOVEL OF THE BATTLE OF THERMOPYLAE by Steven Pressfield STARSHIP TROOPERS by Robert A. Heinlein ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline GHOST FLEET: A NOVEL OF THE NEXT WORLD WAR by P. W. Singer; August Cole THE KILLER ANGELS: THE CLASSIC NOVEL OF THE CIVIL WAR by Michael Shaara The whole 2019 reading list is great stuff, top notch reading for…
on “Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?” ↗http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ghost-Fleet-Novel-Next-World/dp/0544... Read that last week, it's a about a future war between the US and the Chinese, it's bordering on sci-fi but interesting nonetheless and a good read. Interestingly it posits…
on “What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea” ↗Kill Decision is great. Another great near-future fiction about how modern warfare might evolve is Ghost Fleet. Fast read, and highly interesting - if a bit frightening. https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Fleet-Novel-Next-World/dp/05441...
on “Pentagon Confronts a New Threat from ISIS: Exploding Drones” ↗Read also "Ghost Fleet" by P.W. Singer and August Cole.
on “Chip wars: China, America and silicon supremacy” ↗You might like Ghost Fleet [1] (or [2] for more colorful review). Ghost Fleet is essentially a white paper turned into a Tom Clancy style techno-thriller on what war might look like between China and the United States. Tactics…
on “Pentagon official: FCC decision on 5G threatens GPS, national security” ↗…most points of an operation, specifically route planning, where to place your machine guns, and where to attack the objective from. * GPS can be jammed. This point was driven home hard by the novel Ghost Fleet. Ghost Fleet is a white paper turned into a novel (because no one would read a whitepaper) on what a future war with China would look like. I'm pretty sure Ghost Fleet is also the impetus for the Naval…
on “The Cannons on the B-29 Bomber” ↗…good or bad to be associated with such an incident. I think it's not good because of the potential to become politicly charged. Add some "cyber" and it has NatSec types reeling. There is a scenario in Ghost Fleet[1] where a vessel sailing under a Chinese flag blocks the Panama canal in a theater of war with the West. Not going to issue any spoilers but it's a brilliant (fiction) novel for hypothetical future war…
on “Suez canal blocked by a massive ship” ↗"Ghost Fleet" touches on OP's original idea of laws in space, not so much this idea. It's a good pulp world war 3 techno novel.
on “Tiangong-1: Chinese space station will crash to Earth within months” ↗Because of a recent "Software Engineering Daily" episode about modern warfare, I just finished reading "Ghost Fleet", a fictional book from a few years ago which features this Zumwalt-class destroyer in a war between the US and a joint China-Russia alliance. It was a fun read.
on “The Navy’s Second Stealth Zumwalt-Class Destroyer Is Almost Ready for Action” ↗Iirc "kamikaze" drones play a decisive final role in the novel "Ghost Fleet" [1], a fun book to read. 1. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22749719-ghost-fleet
on “F-35's Towed Decoys” ↗Interesting competition. I just finished "Ghost Fleet" which is chock full of this tech. Eye-opening stuff when you look deeper. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Fleet_(novel)
on “AI slays top F-16 pilot in DARPA dogfight simulation” ↗2015 "Ghost Fleet" scifi novel elaborates on technology likely to rule the battlefield. I listened to the audiobook, twice. Its good.
on “Drone Swarms Are Getting Too Fast for Humans to Fight, U.S. General Warns” ↗Recommend reading "Ghost Fleet" where even your toilet stops working when we go to war with a country that manufactures many of our electronic components. When you get bored, list all of your connected home and personal items that…
on “FiiO M3K review – a pocketable-high quality audio player (2018)” ↗After reading "Ghost Fleet" by P.W. Singer and August Cole, the idea in there about China putting backdoors in chips sent to the US for years -- laying the 'groundwork' for an eventual cyber and physical invasion -- has really…
on “Why It’s So Difficult – and Costly – To Secure Chips” ↗If anyone has read "Ghost Fleet", this seems appropriate. However, I tend to agree with usrusr about the seemingly shallow depth of the course. http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Fleet-Novel-Next-World/dp/054414...
on “Naval Academy reinstates celestial navigation” ↗