Space Wars: The First Six Hours of World War III
by William B. Scott

Space Wars by Willliam Scott, Michael Coumatos, and William Birnes, Forge Books (April 17, 2007) describes how the first hours of World War III might play out in the year 2010. While fiction, it's based on real-world military scenarios and technologies, dramatically highlighting the West's vulnerability to destruction of its space-based commercial and military communications infrastructure.

In 2010, advanced space weapons fall into the hands of radical Islamic terrorists, who launch them against the West's reconnaissance, weather, and communications satellites. Meanwhile, inside U.S. Strategic Command, 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 in space and that the Pentagon is about to find out that data from the GPS satellite system is no longer reliable, making accurate military operations impossible worldwide....

What makes Space Wars especially credible—and a fascinating and informative read—is the outstanding technical and military expertise of two of the authors. Michael Coumatos is a former U.S. Navy test pilot, ship's captain and commodore, US Space Command director of war gaming, and government counterterrorism advisor.

William Scott recently retired as Rocky Mountain bureau chief for Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine, a Flight Test Engineer graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, and an electronics engineering officer at the National Security Agency.

Interview with the author and links to more here: http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.htm...