Space Wars - by Michael J Coumatos & William B Scott & William J Birnes (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

William B. Scott is a retired Rocky Mountain bureau chief for Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine and a former U.S. Air Force flight-test engineer. He served with the National Security Agency and as aircrew on nuclear sampling missions. Michael J. Coumatos is a former U.S. Navy test pilot, the former U.S. Space Command director of wargaming, and a former National Security Agency counterterrorism adviser. With the help of bestselling author William J. Birnes, these renowned experts have joined forces to grippingly depict how the first hours of World War III might play out in the year 2010.

Coumatos and Scott take the reader inside U.S. Strategic Command, where top military commanders, space-company executives, and U.S. intelligence experts are conducting a DEADSATS II wargame, exploring how the loss of critical satellites could lead to nuclear war. The gamers don't know that the war they are playing has already begun, miles above them, in the lifeless, silent cold of space. Jam-packed with the actual systems and secret technologies the United States has or will soon field to protect its assets, Space Wars describes a near-future nuclear nightmare that terrorists will relish but politicians prefer to ignore. In a quieter, more peaceful time, Space Wars would be an exciting work of fiction. But with the United States now at war, Space Wars is all too real.

Review Quotes

"A wake-up call for Western society. Space Wars should be mandatory reading for politicians, policy makers, businessmen, lawyers, and students." --Maj. Gen. Wilbert D. Pearson, U.S. Air Force (ret.), vice president of Lockheed Martin

"Space Wars is a book that can be read as a thriller, as a call to arms or a fictionalized exploration of the world of wargaming and space security. In any sense, though, it's an original." --Defense Technology International

"Unless we are willing to accept the fact that there are some out there who are fanatically bent on destroying us, Space Wars could be profoundly prophetic." --Capt. Eugene Cernan, U.S. Navy (ret.), pilot for Gemini 9, Apollo 10, and commander of Apollo 17

"The hair on your neck will rise as you absorb the latent danger facing the United States as revealed in Space Wars. The utterly believable, totally logical premise is terrifying, and the book should be made required reading by Congress. As Space Wars makes clear, we are on the edge of a low-tech catastrophe that will wipe out our high-tech advantages." --Col. Walter J. Boyne, U.S. Air Force (ret.), New York Times bestselling author of Supersonic Thunder

"Space Wars is a realistic, often startling behind-the-scenes account of military space strategies and the mounting geopolitical threats in our world today. It will leave you gazing toward space with a new understanding of the great battlefield just beyond our hemisphere and the critical role it plays in the future of mankind." --Lt. Governor Jane Norton, State of Colorado, delegate to the Aerospace States Association

About the Author

Michael J. Coumatos is the former U.S. Space Command Director in charge of wargames and a former National Security Agency counterterrorism adviser.

William B. Scott is the editor-in-chief of Aviation Week & Space Technology and a nine-year U.S. Air Force veteran who served as aircrew on nuclear sampling missions.

William J. Birnes is the New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Day After Roswell and Worker in the Light.