In this fascinating foray into the millennia-long relationship between science and military power, acclaimed astrophysicist and "the world's best science communicator" (Times Literary Supplement) Neil deGrasse Tyson and writer-researcher Avis Lang examine how the methods and tools of astrophysics have been enlisted in the service of war. "The overlap is strong, and the knowledge flows in both directions", say the authors, because astrophysicists and military planners care about many of the same things: multi-spectral detection, ranging, tracking, imaging, high ground, nuclear fusion and access to space. Tyson and Lang call it a "curiously complicit" alliance. "The universe is both the ultimate frontier and the highest of high grounds", they write. "Shared by both space scientists and space warriors, it's a laboratory for one and a battlefield for the other. The explorer wants to understand it; the soldier wants to dominate it. But without the right technology-which is more or less the same technology for both parties-nobody can get to it, operate in it, scrutinise it, dominate it or use it to their advantage and someone else's disadvantage." Spanning early celestial navigation to satellite-enabled warfare, Accessory to War is a richly researched and provocative examination of the intersection of science, technology, industry and power that will introduce Tyson's millions of fans to yet another dimension of how the universe has shaped our lives and our world.
(source: Nielsen Book Data) 9780393064445 20181105

• 1: Foundations
• 2: Beginnings
• 3: Theory and Practice-- the Inter war years
• 4: The Second World War in the West
• 5: The Air War in the Pacific
• 6: Cold War 1945-1982
• 7: The Apotheosis of Air Power-- 1983-2001
• 8: Aerostats to Algorithms-- 2001-2018 and beyond Further Reading Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Aerial warfare which has dominated western war-making for over 100 years, and despite regular announcements of its demise, it shows no sign of becoming obsolete. Frank Ledwidge offers a sweeping look at the history of air warfare, introducing the major battles, crises, and controversies where air power has taken centre stage, and the changes in technology and air power capabilities over time. Highlighting the role played by air power in the First and Second World Wars, he also sheds light on the lesser-known theatres where the roles of air forces have been clearly decisive in conflicts, in Africa, South America, and Asia. Along the way, Ledwidge asks key questions about the roles air power can deliver, and whether it is conceptually different from other forms of combat. Considering whether bombing has ever been truly effective, he discusses whether wars can be won from the air, and concludes by analysing whether there is a future for manned air power, or if it is inevitable that drones will dominate 21st century war in the air.
(source: Nielsen Book Data) 9780198818137 20190121

• "A different breed of cat": the foundations of pilot culture
• Shared experiences: the foundations of SAC culture
• Beginnings: The evolution of SAC
• "We are at war now": implementing a new organizational culture
• Taking charge: organizational culture in SAC relationships, institutions, and artifacts
• SAC life: the SAC mentality in action
• Living in the missile age: Fear and SAC culture
• Epilogue and conclusion.

"Always at War is the story of Strategic Air Command (SAC) during the early decades of the Cold War. It explains how an organization dominated by experienced World War II airmen developed a unique culture that thrives to this day. The narrative begins with the origins of powered flight and describes how the early generation of American pilots developed their own culture and shared beliefs rooted in the promise of airpower."--Provided by publisher.

• Introduction: the power over life and death
• Robopocalypse now. The coming swarm: the military robotics revolution ; The terminator and the roomba: what is autonomy? ; Machines that kill: what is an autonomous weapon?
• Building the terminator. The future of being built today: autonomous missiles, drones, and robot swarms ; Inside the puzzle palace: is the Pentagon building autonomous weapons? ; Crossing the threshold: approving autonomous weapons ; World war R: robotic weapons around the world ; Garage bots: DIY killer robots
• Runaway gun. Robots run amok: failure in autonomous systems ; Command and decision: can autonomous weapons be used safely? ; Black box: the weird, alien world of deep neural networks ; Failing deadly: the risk of autonomous weapons
• Flash war. Bot vs. bot: an arms race in speed ; The invisible war: autonomy in cyberspace ; "Summoning the demon": the rise of intelligent machines
• The fight to ban autonomous weapons. Robots on trial: autonomous weapons and the laws of war ; Soulless killers: the morality of autonomous weapons ; Playing with fire: autonomous weapons and stability
• Averting armageddon: the weapon of policy. Centaur warfighters: humans + machines ; The pope and the crossbow: the mixed history of arms control ; Are autonomous weapons inevitable?: the search for lethal laws of robotics
• Conclusion: no fate but what we make.

What happens when a Predator drone has as much autonomy as a Google car? Or when a weapon that can hunt its own targets is hacked? Although it sounds like science fiction, the technology already exists to create weapons that can attack targets without human input. Paul Scharre, a leading expert in emerging weapons technologies, draws on deep research and firsthand experience to explore how these next-generation weapons are changing warfare. Scharre's far-ranging investigation examines the emergence of autonomous weapons, the movement to ban them, and the legal and ethical issues surrounding their use. He spotlights artificial intelligence in military technology, spanning decades of innovation from German noise-seeking Wren torpedoes in World War II-antecedents of today's homing missiles-to autonomous cyber weapons, submarine-hunting robot ships, and robot tank armies. Through interviews with defense experts, ethicists, psychologists, and activists, Scharre surveys what challenges might face "centaur warfighters" on future battlefields, which will combine human and machine cognition. We've made tremendous technological progress in the past few decades, but we have also glimpsed the terrifying mishaps that can result from complex automated systems-such as when advanced F-22 fighter jets experienced a computer meltdown the first time they flew over the International Date Line. At least thirty countries already have defensive autonomous weapons that operate under human supervision. Around the globe, militaries are racing to build robotic weapons with increasing autonomy. The ethical questions within this book grow more pressing each day. To what extent should such technologies be advanced? And if responsible democracies ban them, would that stop rogue regimes from taking advantage? At the forefront of a game-changing debate, Army of None engages military history, global policy, and cutting-edge science to argue that we must embrace technology where it can make war more precise and humane, but without surrendering human judgment. When the choice is life or death, there is no replacement for the human heart.
(source: Nielsen Book Data) 9780393608984 20180611

The Bachem Ba 349 Natter was a secretive, vertical take-off, single-seat rocket interceptor intended to offer high-speed defence of key targets. This radical aircraft offered Luftwaffe an inexpensive means with which to intercept and attack Allied heavy bombers using a vertically-launched, semi-expendable machine built of wood and armed with a nose-mounted `honeycomb' battery of spin-stabilised air-to-air rockets as well as cannon armament. Launched vertically at 36,000ft per minute, the pilot was expected to fly within range of the enemy bombers, fire his rockets at them, ram another bomber, eject and parachute to the ground. Illustrated with contemporary photographs and stunning commissioned artwork, this study examines this inventive yet ultimately unsuccessful attempt by the Luftwaffe to defend against the tide of Allied aircraft that was bombing German cities into the ground.
(source: Nielsen Book Data) 9781472820099 20180806

• INTRODUCTION
• I: ATOMIC WORLD A Culture of Secrecy Manhattan Project Phase Two- Radiological Weapons Experimentation
• II: THE RADIUM LEGACY
• III: BLINDED BY SCIENCE Radioactive Warfare
• IV: THE MILITARIZED ACADEMY Militarization of the Academy Stanford University/Stanford Research Institute
• V: STRUCTURE OF DECEIT PHS, NIH and Embedded Studies No Turning Back Military Crosshairs Final Weapons Targets Fernald School
• VI: MILITARY ANALOGS Hidden in Plain View Target One: Minneapolis St. Louis Army Chemical Corps Experiments Winnipeg, Canada Leighton Effects A Parallel Study A Dubious Narrative The National Research Council Reviews Army Data An Unlikely Champion Parsons and the Army: A Lucrative Partnership
• VII: THE ARMY CHEMICAL CORPS AND OPEN-AIR FIELD STUDIES The St. Louis Open-Air Dispersion Study- Part Two The Pruitt-Igoe Public Housing Complex St. Louis Part II SRI and the Atomic Veterans Post-Study Claims by Officials
• VIII: IN THIS HOUSE: EMBEDDEDNESS AND THE MILITARY RADIATION STUDIES AEC Isotopes Project Dual-Use Technology Gabriel and Sunshine The Vanderbilt Radiation Studies
• IX: FALLOUT "SIMULANT" TESTING Fallout Simulants Canadian and U.K. Studies U.S. Open Air Radiation Experiments
• X: DEVIANCE, SECRECY, AND CLOSED WORLDS Secrecy and Group Conformity Closed World Dynamics Control of Discourse Dehumanization
• CONCLUSION After the Dust has Settled A Tangle of Objectives
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• METHODOLOGY AND AFTERWORD Components for Future Exploration
• APPENDIX A: ABBREVIATIONS LIST
• INDEX.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Behind the Fog is the first in-depth, comprehensive examination of the United States' Cold War radiological weapons program. The book examines controversial military-sponsored studies and field trials using radioactive "simulants" that exposed American civilians to radiation and other hazardous substances without their knowledge or consent during the Cold War. Although Western biological and chemical weapons programs have been analyzed by a number of scholars, Behind the Fog is a strong departure from the rest in that the United States radiological weapons program has been generally unknown to the public. Martino-Taylor establishes through social linkages and coordinated efforts by a relatively small group of military scientists who advanced a four-pronged secret program of human-subject radiation studies that targeted unsuspecting Americans for Cold War military purposes. Officials enabled such projects to advance through the layering of secrecy, by embedding classified studies in other studies, and through outright deception. Agency and academic partnerships advanced, supported, and concealed the studies from the public at large who ultimately served as unwitting test subjects. Martino-Taylor's comprehensive research illuminates a dark chapter of government secrecy, the military-industrial-academic complex, and large-scale organizational deviance in American history. In its critical approach, Behind the Fog effectively examines the mechanisms that allow large-scale elite deviance to take place in modern society.
(source: Nielsen Book Data) 9781138239678 20171023

While the military features of historic forts usually receive the most attention from researchers, this volume focuses instead on the people who met and interacted in these sites. Contributors to British Forts and Their Communities look beyond the defensive architecture, physical landscapes, and armed conflicts to explore the complex social diversity that arose in the outposts of the British Empire. The forts investigated here operated at the empire's peak in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, protecting British colonial settlements and trading enclaves scattered across the globe. Locations in this volume include New York State, Michigan, the St. Lawrence River, and Vancouver, as well as sites in the Caribbean and in Africa. Using archaeological and archival evidence, these case studies show how forts brought together people of many different origins, ethnicities, identities, and social roles, from European soldiers to indigenous traders to African slaves. Characterized by shifting networks of people, commodities, and ideas, these fort populations were microcosms of the emerging modern world. This volume reveals how important it is to move past the conventional emphasis on the armed might of the colonizer in order to better understand the messy, entangled nature of British colonialism and the new era it helped usher in.
(source: Nielsen Book Data) 9780813056753 20180416

• Acknowledgements / Abbreviations / Transgressive Chemicals, Brian Rappert and Alex Mankoo / From Reviled Poisons to State Arsenals: The Un(necessary) Proliferation of Chemical Weapons, Jeanne Guillemin / Lesser Appreciations: A History of Inter-War Chemical Warfare, James Revill & Marcos Favero / Biological Warfare, Chemical Warfare and the Public Body, Etienne Aucouturier / Opening Spaces through Exhibiting Absences: Representing Secretive Pasts, Brian Rappert, Kathryn Smith, and Chandre Gould / Tear Gas Epistemology: The Himsworth Committee and Weapons as Drugs, Brian Balmer, Alex Spelling, Caitriona McLeish / What Counts as a Chemical Weapon?: The Category of Law Enforcement in the Chemical Weapons Convention, Michael Crowley / Tear Gas and Colonial Bodies in the British Interwar Period, Anna Feigenbaum / Controlling and Caring for Public Bodies: Civil Defence Gas Tests in WWII Britain, Alex Mankoo / `Chemical Bodies' and the Future of Control, Alex Mankoo and Brian Rappert.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

In warfare, civil unrest, and political protest, chemicals have served as means of coercion, suppression, and manipulation. This book examines how chemical agents have been justified, utilised and resisted as means of control. Through attending to how, when, and for whom bodies become rendered as sites of intervention, Chemical Bodies demonstrates the inter-relations between geopolitical transformations and the technological, spatial and social components of local events. The chapters draw out some of the insidious ways in which chemical technologies are damaging, and re-open discussion regarding their justification, role and regulation. In doing so the contributors illustrate how certain instances of force gain prominence (or fade into obscurity), how some individuals speak and others get spoken for, how definitions of what counts as `success' and `failure' are advanced, and how the rights and wrongs of violence are contested.
(source: Nielsen Book Data) 9781786605863 20190121

• 1. Civilians under Siege from Sarajevo to Troy: Introduction-- Alex Dowdall and John Horne.-
• 2. Transmission and Transformation: Memories of the Siege of Sarajevo-- Ivana Macek.-
• 3. 'This did not happen': Survivors of the Siege of Leningrad (1941-1944) and the `Truth about the Blockade'-- Alexandra Wachter.-
• 4. `Like Troy, though about as much larger...as the Encyclopaedia Britannica is larger than the Iliad': Civilians and Siege Warfare during the First World War-- Alex Dowdall.-
• 5. Siege Warfare in Comparative Early-Modern Contexts: Norms, Nuances, Myth and Massacre during the Revolutionary Wars-- Fergus Robson.-
• 6. Between Positional Warfare and Small War: Soldiers and Civilians during the `Desolation of the Palatinate' (1688-89)-- Emilie Dosquet.-
• 7. Before the Storm: Civilians under Siege during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1630)-- Jane Finucane.-
• 8. A Race against Time - A Fight to the Death: Combatants and Civilians in the Siege and Capture of Jerusalem, 1099-- Alan V. Murray.-
• 9. As They Were Ripped from the Altars: Civilians, Sacrilege and Classical Greek Siege Warfare-- Joshua R. Hall.-
• 10. Civilians under Siege in the Ancient Greek World-- Philip de Souza.- Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This edited volume analyses siege warfare as a discrete type of military engagement, in the face of which civilians are particularly vulnerable. Siege warfare is a form of combat that has usually had devastating effects on civilian populations. From the near-contemporary Siege of Sarajevo to the real and mythical sieges of the ancient Mediterranean, this has been a recurring type of military engagement which, through bombardment, starvation, disease and massacre, places non-combatants at the heart of battle. To date, however, there has been little recognition of the effects of siege warfare on civilians. This edited volume addresses this gap. Using a distinctive regressive method, it begins with the present and works backwards, avoiding teleological interpretations that suggest the targeting of civilians in war is a modern phenomenon. Its contributors interrogate civilians' roles during sieges, both as victims and active participants; the laws and customs of siege warfare; its place in historical memory, and the ways civilian survivors have dealt with trauma. Its scope and content ensure that the collection is essential reading for all those interested in the place of civilians in war. Chapter 2 of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com.
(source: Nielsen Book Data) 9781137585318 20180326

• Introduction / Chronology / Design and Development / The Strategic Situation / Technical Specifications / The Combatants / Combat / Statistics and Analysis / Conclusion / Further Reading / Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

By 1944, the evolution of armoured doctrine had produced very different outcomes in Britain and Germany. Offering a good balance of speed, protection and firepower, the British Cromwell tank was much faster than its German opponent, but the Jagdpanzer IV tank destroyer had a high-velocity main gun and a lower profile that made it formidable on the defensive, especially in ambush situations. The two types would fight in a series of bloody encounters, from the initial days of the struggle for Normandy through to its climax as the Allies sought to trap their opponents in the Falaise Pocket. Using archive photographs, specially commissioned artwork and battle reports, this fascinating study expertly assesses the realities of tactical armoured combat during the desperate battles after D-Day.
(source: Nielsen Book Data) 9781472825865 20180709

In warzones, ordinary commercially-available drones are used for extraordinary reconnaissance and information gathering. They can also be used for bombings - a drone carrying an explosive charge is potentially a powerful weapon. At the same time asymmetric warfare has become the norm - with large states increasingly fighting marginal terrorist groups in the Middle East and elsewhere. Here, Nicholas Grossman shows how we are entering the age of the drone terrorist - groups such as Hezbollah are already using them in the Middle East. Grossman will analyse the ways in which the United States, Israel and other advanced militaries use aerial drones and ground-based robots to fight non-state actors (e.g. ISIS, al Qaeda, the Iraqi and Afghan insurgencies, Hezbollah, Hamas, etc.) and how these groups, as well as individual terrorists, are utilizing less advanced commercially-available drones to fight powerful state opponents. Robotics has huge implications for the future of security, terrorism and international relations and this will be essential reading on the subject of terrorism and drone warfare.
(source: Nielsen Book Data) 9781784538309 20180423

• Introduction /The first armoured cars /World War I armored cars and the Pancho Villa expedition /The 1920s /1930s Developments /Further Reading /Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

The first American armoured cars began to emerge around the turn of the century, seeing their first military use in 1916 during the Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa. When the United States entered World War I, the American Expeditionary Forces used some armoured cars in France, and American armoured cars were used by the French Army. The inter-war years saw considerable innovation and experimentation in armoured car design. Of the 1930s scout car designs, the M3A1 scout car was good enough to be produced in very large numbers in World War II, and was widely exported to many other armies via Lend-Lease. It also served as the basis for the late M2 and M3 armoured half-tracks. In this study, using detailed full colour plates and rigorous analysis, US armour expert Steven J. Zaloga chronicles the development of the US armoured car in the years leading up to World War II.
(source: Nielsen Book Data) 9781472825148 20180723

This is the biography of Henry Crowe whose career encompassed time as an infantryman with the Royal Irish Regiment during the First World War, an observer with the RFC and fledgling RAF, a pilot in Ireland at the time of the Irish War of Independence, a photographic officer and flight commander in Iraq, and Commanding Officer of Nos. 23 and 74 Squadrons. His memories of time spent in Iraq and on the North West Frontier between the wars have a real resonance today, illustrating just how little has changed in some respects. Henry served at the Air Ministry in various positions and concluded his service with the RAF in India, retiring as an Air Commodore in 1945. He had a keen interest in photography and took hundreds of images of the places he served, the aircraft he flew and saw, and the people he met. With an early Bell and Howell cine camera he also captured film of Malta, Iraq and India between the wars. As a photographic record alone this book is fascinating. But Henry wrote about his experiences as well and it is his memoirs that form the backbone of this biography, written with the full backing of his family. Henry Crowe was highly decorated and especially well thought of during the course of his career; reading Bob Crossey's account of his fascinating life, it is clear to see why.
(source: Nielsen Book Data) 9781526725967 20180806

From the 1920s Afghanistan maintained a small air arm that depended heavily upon outside assistance. Starting in 2005, the United States led an air advisory campaign to rebuild the Afghan Air Force (AAF). In 2007 a formal joint/combined entity, led by a U.S. Air Force brigadier general, began air advisor work with Afghan airmen. Between 2007 and 2011, these efforts made modest progress in terms of infrastructures, personnel and aircraft accessions, and various training courses. But by 2010, advisors increasingly viewed AAF command and control (C2) as a problem area that required significant improvement if a professional air force was to be built. In the spring of 2011, major institutional changes to AAF C2 procedures were being introduced when nine U.S. air advisors were killed. The attack was the worst single-incident loss of U.S. Air Force personnel in a deployed location since 1996 and the worst insider-attack since 2001. From the day of that tragic event, the cultural chasm between Afghanistan and the West became more apparent. This dilemma continues with no end in sight to an air advisory mission of uncertain long-term value.
(source: Nielsen Book Data) 9781682473368 20190218

• Abbreviations Preface
• Chapter 1: Origins
• Chapter 2: The Medieval Castle
• Chapter 3: The Sixteenth Century
• Chapter 4: The Seventeenth Century
• Chapter 5: The Eighteenth Century
• Chapter 6: The Nineteenth Century
• Chapter 7: The World Wars
• Chapter 8: Since World War Two
• Chapter 9: Conclusions Notes Selected Further Reading Credits About the Author.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Fortifications and Siegecraft explores the global history of fortifications and the threats posed to them by siegecraft. Tracing the interaction of attack and defense over time, Jeremy Black situates the evolution of fortifications within their broader cultural and political context, showing their ongoing importance to military and social interaction across the world today.
(source: Nielsen Book Data) 9781538109687 20180903

Ever since humans began to live together in settlements they have felt the need to organise some kind of defence against potentially hostile neighbours. Many of the earliest city states were built as walled towns, and during the medieval era, stone castles were built both as symbols of the defenders' strength and as protection against potential attack. The advent of cannon prompted fortifications to become lower, denser and more complex, and the forts of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries could appear like snowflakes in their complexity and beautiful geometry. Without forts, the history of America could have taken a very different course, pirates could have sailed the seas unchecked, and Britain itself could have been successfully invaded. This book explains the history of human fortifications, and is beautifully illustrated using photographs, plans, drawings and maps to explain why they were built, their various functions and their immense historical legacy in laying the foundations of empire.
(source: Nielsen Book Data) 9781472827630 20181105