Space Wars: The First Six Hours of World War III--A War Game Scenario

by Michael J. Coumatos, William J. Birnes, William B. Scott

Michael Coumatos is a former U.S. Navy test pilot, U.S. Space Command director of war gaming, and a National Security Council counterterrorism advisor. William Scott is a retired Rocky Mountain bureau chief for Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine and a former U.S. Air Force flight-test engineer, who served with the National Security Agency and as aircrew on nuclear-sampling missions. 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 players don’t know that the war they are gaming 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 space 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.

Genres: Fiction, Military Fiction

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 17, 2007

Reviews

[Brinn Colenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel presents a frightening scenario. The Amazon dot com sales description of dry sounding plot points does not do this book justice. Space Wars elicited such emotions in me that I had to put it down several times to take a few breaths before diving in again.

I don't know if the physics concerning the destruction of satellites are possible but they sure sound plausible. The political behind-the-scenes machinations are spot-on. The flying scenes are superb. The good guys are believable and the bad guys in our government and beyond are far too accurate-- not only plausible but all too true.

If you enjoy political intrigue and military science, you will revel in this book. It is the best space action book I have ever read...

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book fits squarely into the realm of the place I currently work and is quite plausible in it's hypothetical scenario of the beginning of World War III. All of the technologies discussed are fact based, not science fiction. The subject matter is the hot topic in many nations around the world. He who dominates space will dominate the world. It's scary and entirely plausible...a good read with important messages that should be at the forefront of the presidential debates. Sadly, very few Americans are aware of the dangers.

[David Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book; Fiction, but not really science fiction. This book is set in 2010 and addresses many of the worlds current political problems. When you finish reading it you will think Wow! This could really happen!!

[Y0duh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was a good read. Ending was not that great.

[Austin Liu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book was very good since it very clearly illustrated what is actually a very real possibility. This book also helped me realize just how important space is to our everyday lives.

[Sergey · Rating 5 out of 5]

World War 3 is a very serious threat, which has been breathing at the western society’s neck, right after the World War 2 was over. Different countries pose different threats, some more dangerous than others. The book “Space Wars, the first 6 hours of world war 3” shows a very peculiar look at how much damage, a small country like Iran could do to the entire world. This book makes people who read it; think about what would the country do, if something like that were to happen. It is very interesting though, that some things that were predicted in this book, are already happening, only a couple years apart. “Space wars should be mandatory reading for politicians, policy makers, businessmen, lawyers and students” (Maj. Gen. Wilbert D. Pearson).
“Hulburt snarled “I do not need your dumbassed counsel, Paul! I will speak to the president about the dire consequences your foolhardy worm mission has triggered, as well as the inexplicable action of not telling me, the guy who’s responsible for the defense of this nation…” Everyone at that point in the book is on their nerves. The world is on the verge of a world war, and all because of one man’s actions. Of course there were a lot of particular events that have helped make the situation the way it is, but after a cyber-attack on Iran, the real war started and the nukes were launched. This book shows how actions of one man with good motives, under certain circumstances could bring the world to the war that everyone fears.
This book shows time and again how actions of particular people can change the very course of how the game will play out. When the actions are uncoordinated, even people with the best motives can cause the world to be on the verge of destruction. This particular book shows many ways in which this is true, however this book also shows how actions of single people can prevent the war, or at least slow the ascend of the war. This book should be made a piece that is read throughout schools, for this book shows what will very likely happen, if the world continues going in the very same direction that it’s heading right now.
Throughout this book, there are actions of individuals. Whether they are helpful or hurtful to America and the western world, they are very important. Actions of individuals can bend the wheel of fate of the world on their own, is the most important message of this book. It is trying (and is successful at) showing that every individual can make changes that affect things that affect the world, or even the people around him or her. This book is a very important piece of literature that for some reason is overlooked by schools, and should be taught.

[sumo · Rating 3 out of 5]

incredibly slow to start, the author was very “activist” in an alternate near future (now past) in an “I told you so” manner that made me cringe. The book included well researched facts intermingled seamlessly with conspiracy theories, I almost quit a few times. However, things finally picked up around halfway through. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it, but it’s also not a bad read to better understand the dependence on space and cyber for our culture, our government, and our military. **Spoilers follow** That said, the science is not really sound (more “cool” than practical) in many choices to go kinetic without even exploring non-kinetic options for space control. On the flip side, it does examine the implications of a non-kinetic space or cyber attack, and what retaliation options should be considered. Despite having entirely too many military officers and civilian leaders to keep track of, there are only 3 women in the book. One is an idiot politician who gets killed. One is an anonymous mother who gets killed. The last is a war game strategist. Finally, one cool thing, it briefly discusses USAF TPS and traces the actions of a few students getting close to graduation. It is set in April 2010, so clearly, this book is about my TPS class ;-)

[Paul Andrus · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't contend that this is a bad book, I just didn't enjoy it. There is probably some good information in it, but I could not separate the tedious prose from solid concepts connected to the real world. I grew weary of excessively wordy imagery, technobabble, and out-of-place fighter-pilot machismo. It seemed that military officers were predictably described in flattering ways, e.g., "ramrod-straight Marine Corps General." Others, not so much. To test that impression, I opened to a page at random. My eyes fell on the words "short and stooped figure." I was not at all surprised that it described a Russian scientist. When I read "A slightly-overweight but attractive Asian woman with streaks of grey..." I could go no further. "Space Wars" is only the second book in memory that I did not want to finish.

[Bobby · Rating 3 out of 5]

First six hours? Wargame scenario? WWIII? Who picked the title to this book?

The book takes place over weeks, not 6 hours. The wargame part of the book is dumb and doesn't really align with what the forward discusses. The wargame folks didn't really impact or do anything and those parts were the worst writing of the book.

I was engaged with the story . . . when I wasn't laughing at the incessant need of the authors to try and dumb down every single thing in the book coupled with some poor writing and poor understanding of things.

Additionally, there are so many military cliches that it becomes nauseating and the authors paint the entire U.S. military and intelligence apparatus is impotent, dull-brained, and not proactive.

If you want any correlation of reality to a fictional story, stay away. If you want a halfway decent fictional story that sends a clear message of how space plays into modern and future conflict, then you got yourself a decent read.

Three stars is me being generous. I won't be picking up the sequel to this book unless someone tells me I have to read it.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was "OK" for about the first half. It was far fetched and clearly designed to frighten military and congressional leaders into spending money on a project. At about the halfway point the characters suddenly became extremely racist and the story went from "far-fetched" to unbelievable. Things were tail-spinning pretty hard for a while after that and I eventually gave up on the book when I realized I was finding excuses to read anything else rather than pick it back up again.

[Jeff Muniz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing reading. In some spots the timelines seemed off compared to what was actually happening in the story line. While written 15 years ago, the technology still seems current. Hard to imagine what is actually out there now.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

A Tom Clancy wannabe with tons of poor treatment of women. Terrible book

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really intriguing read. It had a very abrupt ending but I’m hoping it will lead into the next book, “Counterspace”.

[Trekscribbler · Rating 2 out of 5]

SPACE WARS: Not Enough ‘Space’ And No ‘War’ to Speak Of

About three-quarters of the way into SPACE WARS: THE FIRST SIX HOURS OF WORLD WAR III, the authors – the trio of Michael J. Coumatos, William B. Scott, and William J. Birnes – decide to introduce some political editorializing vicariously by having a ranking military officer dump on his former Commander-in-Chief by referring to an intentionally unnamed man as “the failed Cowboy President of the last eight years.” Hmm … wonder who THAT could be? Despite the fact that no military officer I know or have met speaks that way of any President or Commander-in-Chief, the obvious (and all too easy) politicization of a fictional war seems beneath the writers here, especially moreso when that failed Cowboy President’s defense program essentially saves the day in the last chapters of the book, and the authors are curiously absent any editorial smack-downs (or suck-ups!) to this fictional world they’ve created.

Up front, SPACE WARS offers a unique and exciting premise: in 2010, Iran (I thought they weren’t a threat, U.N.?) instigates a near-nuclear nightmare (I thought they WEREN’T looking for military nuclear uses?) against the backdrop of hurling the U.S. back to the technological Stone Age (or maybe the 1950’s) by crippling its space-based advantages with a new terrorist-controlled maser weapon. There are suicide bombers and drug cartels finally willing to cooperate with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (yeah, that Ahmandinejad, the same one most mainstream pundits claim is a bit of a radical laughingstock). Thank goodness that General Howard Aster and a whole slew of military techno-experts are on the job producing war game scenarios that promise to keep America one step ahead of the bad guys (or so you think, dear reader!).

Don’t get me wrong (my favorite expression the older I get): somewhere deep within the complex and evolutionary ideas within SPACE WARS, there’s a truly great non-fiction book. An in-depth exploration of the technology and the people required to staff the next evolution in satellites, space platforms, computer viruses, high altitude star-planes, and the endless military applications would prove fascinating, and I think that’s largely why I was disappointed with the novel. This is a fictional account – and, worse, it feels like a fictional account – so there isn’t enough time dedicated to the science aspect of everything covered within. Couple that reality with the fact that the conclusion to the story isn’t really a conclusion at all – only an affirmation that “it doesn’t end here” – and I think any avid reader might find more than a few shortcomings tied into these pages. The prose moves slowly, almost as if three writers took a crack at it when one may’ve sufficed, but I’m reviewing only the merits of the finished product, not necessarily the drawbacks to the process used to get it there. In short, I wanted more science and less science fiction, I think, so perhaps I wasn’t the intended audience.

Despite the fact that the novel covers a “fictional” timeframe from April 3rd to May 4th, the authors have somehow curious decided upon the book’s most grievous error: “The First Six Hours of World War III.” Last I looked, there were more than thirty days between the two dates in question, so I’m at a total, complete loss to determine which six hours within these chosen events are the first six hours. From the best I can tell, it’s more than a mildly disjointed assertion on their part, as the book contains no conventional war to speak of but instead focuses on recounting a series of war-related events – or terrorist state “acts of war” is probably more applicable.

Also, for some reason, the authors insist on reminding the reader that military officers – regardless of which branch they serve – all possess nicknames. Hank “Speed” Griffin is introduced as Hank “Speed” Griffin … and then he’s re-introduced as Hank “Speed” Griffin … and then he’s re-re-introduced as Hank “Speed” Griffin multiple times in the book … in fact, I’d argue that it’s done often enough with many enough characters that it borders on the absurd, almost an unintentional slight to military officers and the worlds they’ve created for themselves. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it almost borders on farce, and I don’t think that was the authors’ intent with such serious subject matter, but, at the end of the day, what can I say?

I’m just Ed “The Reviewer” Lee, so I could be mistaken.

[Sheehan · Rating 3 out of 5]

So a bunch of war-gaming retired military guys get together to spin a yarn about how WWIII might come about.

Based largely on a presumed lack of robustness in our nation's defense capability in the space theater, this novelization manages to expound on a number of topics within the space defense debate without going all polemical.

More than anything, the book highlights the highly leveraged information milieu we find ourselves in the modern world, so dependent on satellites, GPS, and "just-in-time"/real-time communications that even a slight disruption can have very far-reaching economic, social and military ramifications almost immediately. So the premise of US/allies' satellite assets being destroyed immediately draws America into a fight with an amorphous enemy; very clever, and definitely eye-opening examination of the small margin for error that can lead to a quick tipping point out of control for world affairs.

Written by people in the "fields of play", the book resonates with seemingly authentic scenarios and skips the adventure story antics. Published in 2007, the whole story actually takes place during April 2010, so that was serendipitous and made me reflect a bit more than I might have otherwise!

Ultimately, I enjoyed it, but I don't know if most of my friends/family would care; at least not until they are actually inconvenienced by destroyed satellites.

The book is, for better or worse, an argument for some militarization of space, which I may not agree with, but understand the consequences of NOT doing it better after having read the book.

[Jason]

I had hoped this book would have been as exciting as Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising" but obviously it wasn't if Ijust gave this book 2 stars. The author(s) bog you down with just a tad too much wargaming theory for someone like myself who was never in the military nor did I ever take statistics to the point where you get bored of it instead of gaining any interest in the subject. There's a enough action here and there, but the story gets bogged down with this vague notion of wargaming and all the different military branches and you quite don't know who is in charge of who and there are too many connections that it's hard to decipher who is doing what. The actual real world effects of the US losing its satellite is glossed over and you see glimpse of how this all effects the rest of the world here and there. But the only true effects you see is for the US military. The subject matter is VERY fascinating, but I couldn't figure out how this book was supposed to be the first six hours of WWIII if the book covers several weeks of time? Maybe I got so bored with the military inter-office political in-fighting that I just didn't get it. Though I am very tempted to give the sequel book, "Counterspace" a try.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some interesting ideas in here under the poorly written techno-thriller dialogue and boiler-plate complaints about spineless Washington bureaucrats. If it were purely fiction, I'd say lots of it was stolen from Dale Brown (tactical microsattelite constellations) and Tom Clancy (Anti-sattelite laser/masers new Dushanbe, Tajikistan), but I think these guys are closer to the real programs (or as colse as) Clancy and Brown. From an alternative-history standpoint, I was annoyed at how the perspective rarely wandered out of the military-industrial complex. While we have plenty of POV characters (and switches between them in mid-paragragh), there's no man-on-the-street view and even handling the press is papered over pretty quickly. Maybe I was just spoiled by 'World War Z.'

To my mind, it would have been a better book if it had been a straight-up non-fiction.

[R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh. It was good enough to get through it, but another one that wasn't good enough for me to run out and buy the second book. There IS at least one other book in this series, I honestly couldn't tell you how many because I'll probably never read it.

I bought this because it was the best of some bad options in an airport about two years ago and in order to get me through a trip it was adequate. Nothing special. If you like Tom Clancy, then you'll probably like this.

[George Samman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately this book turned out to be an exercise in futility. Its excessive jingoism and anti-Muslim/Arab World propaganda proves nothing more than a scare tactic for the your average hillbilly. Some of the book was decent in its content, particularly with regard to satellite technology and how dependent we are on it, but other than that I refused to finish it, as i found it unreadably laughable. Epic fail.

[Dennis W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good rundown but really not compelling enough to capture the attention of most outside the military, or even outside the space community. Amazingly though, not much has likely changed in the 8 years since it was written.

[Braden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Red storm rising type of story brought into the future that is probably not far off. Written to consider some of the impacts of losing space assets. I enjoyed it.