The initial essay, the 'Introduction' (pp. I shall comment briefly on the substance of each chapter prior to an assessment of the overall volume. The FAS web site is located at but I have been unable to find Spacepedia using a variety of search engines. The two web sites mentioned are those of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and James Wade's Spacepedia but the URLs are not listed.

The endnotes are in 8-point font while the rest of the volume is printed in 12-point. 192-193), 49 pages of double column endnotes (423 total notes), a bibliography of 73 items (including two web sites and 18 Russian-languages sources), a glossary of 75 items (AMB, Anti-Ballistic Missile, through VLF, Very Low Frequency ), and a 12-page index of, in the main, proper noun terms and names. 12).įriedman's meticulous yet highly readable book, rendered in British English, is composed of 14 chapters, 29 plates (placed between pp. This current analysis he points out is derived from accounts of reconnaissance satellites taken from unclassified and unofficial sources (p. Friedman has the gift of writing clearly and succinctly, explaining complex terms and leading the reader into the wonderment of satellite technology, navigation, communications, electronic and image reconnaissance, and targeting. He also writes a monthly column for the United States Naval Institute Proceedings and is a valued commentator on television. Among his recent salient works are an analysis of the 1990-1991 campaign against Iraq and a major analysis of the Cold War entitled The Fifty Year War. As a defense analyst, he has also authored volumes on naval radar, weapons, carrier aviation, maritime strategy, and a comprehensive series on world weapons systems. His book is a complex, explicit, and provocative account that is well worth the reader's undivided attention.įriedman is an internationally known strategist and specialist in the fields of weapons design and development and has written a number of respected design histories of warships of the United States Navy (carriers, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and small attack craft). This is not a volume for the casual reader or the fainthearted there are dozens of acronyms, a healthy dose of statistical information, and detailed syntheses. Friedman has prepared a compelling, highly detailed, and well-documented evaluation of where the United States and the Soviet Union (and some of the allies of both powers) have been during the missile age and where we are headed in terms of 'net-centric' warfare. There is a great deal to contemplate about the recent past and the impending future. I have not read a book quite like this since Herman Khan's On Thermonuclear Warfare (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1960 2nd ed., New York: Free Press, 1969). The author assesses this information and its impact on American policies during the past several decades and examines the direction of future developments, including the impact of new civilian and commercial imaging satellites, the impetus to shift from military to civilian-owned communications systems, and developments in anti-satellite systems.Įvery paragraph - nay every sentence - is packed with information that is instructive, enlightening and sobering. Because of the declassification of information in both the United States and Russia, and because of the collapse of the former Soviet Union, a great deal of information about naval sea and space systems has recently become available. As the reader will find, access to space-based systems has dramatically altered naval warfare during the past three decades. Navy and those of the former Soviet Union. This is the first study to move beyond the usual descriptions of space-based communication and navigational systems to describe in detail surveillance and targeting systems and tactics - both offensive and defensive - as they developed in the U.S. If the reader wishes to be informed about the history of space-based naval warfare concepts, political developments, military strategies and tactics, and missile and computer hardware, this scholarly book is essential to that goal.

The Changing Nature of Naval Warfare Since 1970 Kolb (National Endowment for the Humanities)

Seapower and Space: From the Dawn of the Missile Age to Net-Centric Warfare.Īnnapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2000.

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