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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Weapons & equipment > General
This book makes extensive use of Soviet sources to provide the first full analysis of Moscow's ballistic missile defence policy from its origins to the most recent post-Soviet developments. It considers the Soviets' motivations for pursuing an anti-ballistic missile capability and the extent of their success, and reveals that ballistic missile defence policy was used by every political leadership from Krushchev to Yeltsin as a means of sending signals about Moscow's intentions to the West.
"The 1,000 Hour War" was marked by unprecedented speed and force. This book adopts the view that the telecommunications technologies responsible for guiding smart bombs and Patriot missiles to their targets were the same marvels responsible for transmitting to news agencies around the world information about the progress of the war. "The 1,000 Hour War "was a unique case of military action in that it owed both its prosecution and its coverage specifically to satellites, computers, cellular telephones, microwave relay stations, and a myriad of similar technologies.
Gudmundsson tells the story of field artillery in the 20th century and its impact on the major conflicts of our time. Its purpose is to provide the reader--whether artilleryman or not--with hitherto unavailable insights on the role that artillery plays in the larger battle and how that has helped shape the world that we live in today. Unique aspects of the book include the treatment of technical issues in non-technical language, the extensive use of German and French sources generally unavailable to the English-speaking reader, the shattering of some long-cherished myths, and the discussion of issues that are often papered over in the literature of field artillery--losses from "friendly fire," the frequent impotence of counter-battery fire, and the French origins of current American doctrine. The bulk of the literature on field artillery can be fairly described as "gunner propaganda." Gudmundsson, with his emphasis on the way artillery interacts with other arms and the dynamics of the battle as a whole, takes a more balanced and a more critical view, dealing with the failures as well as the achievements of field artillery. This study provides a thorough overview of field artillery in non-technical language that will be of interest to military professionals, military historians, and wargamers.
This is a reference work for EW engineers which is also intended for university use in advanced undergraduate or graduate-level courses in EW, radar, and aerospace systems. This text reviews the fundamental concepts and physical principles underlying EW receiving systems design analysis, and performance evaluation. The main discussion focuses on radar signals in military applications.
The Maghreb--Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia--is a region overburdened by unnecessary military expenditures. Despite persistent civil conflicts and militarized regimes in a number of countries in the region, there are actually few genuine external threats, and the armed forces are now largely used to maintain internal security. A detailed country-by-country assessment of the effectiveness of military forces, and their impact on regional economics, shows that the region remains a mosaic of conflicting national ambitions, but strategic ambitions have been supplanted by internal conflicts, tensions, and politics. Declining military budgets are leading to declining military strength and capability, but they belie the Maghreb's potential for armed conflict and human suffering. Even though the Maghreb is a supplier of oil and natural gas, which usually ensures the attention of the West, this tragedy of arms gets little attention from the outside world. This means that the prospects for the region are continued wasteful military spending, and the resultant harm to national economic and political health.
Bousquet's landmark book examines the impact of key technologies and scientific ideas on the theory and practice of warfare and the handling of the perennial tension between order and chaos on the battlefield. Spanning the entire modern era, from the Scientific Revolution to the present, it offers a systematic account of modern warfare as the constitution of increasingly complex assemblages of bodies and machines whose integration rests upon a military assimilation of scientific thought. Reflecting the pervasive influence of scientific conceptual frameworks upon warfare, modern armies have been successively organised by reference to the paradigmatic technologies of the clock, engine, computer, and network. Conversely, major scientific developments and technological breakthroughs have become intertwined with the experience of war, especially since the Second World War's unprecedented mobilisation of scientific rationality and technical expertise. This increasingly tight symbiosis between science, technology, and war is at the heart of both the tremendous powers and enduring pathologies displayed by the contemporary military machine. In this new and revised edition, Bousquet extends the analysis to encompass the latest developments in the scientific way of warfare in the midst of renewed great power competition and a wave of technological innovation in artificial intelligence and robotics.
In a makeshift laboratory built on a golf course in Maryland, chemist Stanley Lovell led a secret team of scientists that developed the secret gadgets and weapons of the Second World War. Their 'Dirty Tricks Department' was the real-life equivalent of James Bond's legendary Q Branch. If a spy or saboteur needed a forged passport for cover, a silent pistol for executions, an incendiary device for starting fires, or a cyanide pill to kill themselves with before being captured alive, the scientists created it. Moreover, they developed poisons to assassinate foreign leaders, chemical and biological weapons to deploy against enemy soldiers, and truth drugs to interrogate prisoners of war. The Dirty Tricks Department is the first book to focus on the daring, exciting, and often tragic exploits of the men and women who made and used these devices. Lovell and his team exerted a disproportionally large influence on history. Not only were they integral to the Allied victory, but they left a dark legacy that has, until now, gone mainly unacknowledged.
The pilot-less drones, smart bombs and other high-tech weapons on display in recent conflicts are all the outcome of weapons research. However, the kind of scientific and technological endeavour has been around for a long time, producing not only the armaments of Nazi Germany and the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, but the catapults used in ancient Greece and Rome and the assault rifles used by child soldiers in Africa. In this book John Forge examines such weapons research and asks whether it is morally acceptable to undertake such an activity. He argues that it is in fact morally wrong to take part in weapons research as its primary purpose is to produce the means to harm others, and moreover he argues that all attempts to then justify participation in weapons research do not stand up to scrutiny. This book has wide appeal in fields of philosophy and related areas, as well to a more general audience who are puzzled about the rate at which new weapons are accumulated. "
This fascinating reference covers the weapons and armor used by warriors from the 4th to the 15th century and discusses how and why they changed over time. In the Middle Ages, the lack of standardized weapons meant that one warrior's arms were often quite different from another's, even when they were fighting on the same side. And with few major technological advances in that period, the evolution of those weapons over the centuries was incremental. But evolve they ultimately did, bringing arms, armor, and siege weapons to the threshold of the modern era. From the fall of the Roman Empire to the beginnings of the Renaissance, Medieval Weapons: An Illustrated History of Their Impact covers the inexorable transformation from warrior in the mail shirt to fully armored knight, from the days of spears and swords to the large-scale adoption of the handgun. Medieval Weapons covers this fascinating expanse of centuries in chapters devoted to the early medieval, Carolingian, Crusade, and late medieval periods. Within each period, the book details how weapons and armor were developed, what weapons were used for different types of battles, and how weapons and armor both influenced, and were influenced by, changing tactics in battles and sieges.
Examines the present weapons of the United States and the Soviet Union and discusses the development of new nuclear, biological, chemical, and beam weapons.
Although the end of the Cold War has paved the way to a substantial demilitarisation and conversion, the leftovers of this process a" such as former military installations, military training areas, and huge quantities of unserviceable ammunition and equipment a" still pose a severe threat to the environment of both NATO and Partner countries. The rehabilitation of these areas for civilian uses is extremely costly and is generally in the short and medium term not possible. For this reason, the development of new methods for the estimation avoidance of risks should receive special priority. In the context of this ARW, the reconnaissance and appraisal of conversion areas with respect to costs, returns, and legal considerations were discussed. The decades-long use of some areas led to the heavy loading of contaminates. Every task of conversion has as its goal the elimination of dangers to humans and nature, and the return of areas to civil use, such that these areas can be used realise economic interests of the society. The conversion of former military areas represents one of the greatest challenges of the 21st Century, and demands considerable expenditures on the part of society if it is to be properly addressed. Further discussion of these issues and the recognition of the need for further research are important steps towards the return of former military areas to civilian usage.
In this important new study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Moody examines how NATO can best exploit advanced technology to bolster its conventional forces on the battlefield of the future. The Dreadful Fury is a unique analysis integrating the political, military, economic, and technological factors shaping the tough choices confronting Atlantic Alliance policy makers. Drawing on the author's experience at NATO Headquarters, the book's focus on alliance rather than national perspectives of military technology provides an unusual approach to one of the most difficult challenges facing NATO today. After a brief review of the nature of technological change in the modern age, the book examines the shifting industrial landscape within which that change occurs. It then addresses the key problems Alliance policy makers must confront in such critical areas as technology transfer, allied cooperation in development and procurement of modern arms, and the impact of new technology on the conduct of war. In the book's final chapter, a package of policy recommendations is offered to help chart a steady NATO course through the turbulent 1990s.
The Navaho program is the least known, yet the most important of the United States early missile programs. In rocket technology alone the Navaho made possible the Thor, Jupiter and Redstone missiles. It also allowed the construction of the Atlas ICBM\s engines, and in the years to come this engine technology would power the Apollo moon rocket, and our present-day Space Shuttle. The Navaho project achieved major advances in every discipline of engineering and electronics. The program also gave us the airborne digital computer, modular electronic circuitry, and the all inhertial navigation system. The development of modular circuitry alone revolutionized the electronics industry, improving the reliability and repairability of countless electronic devices. In just ten years this program accomplished several technological firsts. The X-10 test drone was the first turbojet powered vehicle to exceed Mach 2. It also was the first aircraft to fly a complete mission under inertial(computer) guidance. Later, the G-26 ramjet powered vehicle became the first jet aircraft to reach Mach 3 and an altitude of 77,000 feet. Even the Navaho booster engine would set a record by producing 405,000 lbs. of thrust-a benchmark that would last for five years. These accomplishments have escaped public notice for more than three decades dut to the program\s "Top Secret" classification. Forty years after its cancellation many of its documents are still classified as "Secret". James Gibson\s new book explains the technical and historical aspects of the Navaho program here for the first time.
Iran today is still struggling with the legacy of its own Islamic revolution, and is deeply divided between the moderates who enjoy broad public support and the conservatives who control the levers of power. The mixed policies that result are reflected in Iran's ambivalent military posture. In recent years, Iran has only conducted a limited build-up of its armed forces and has cut defense spending and arms imports. On the other hand, Iran has developed a carefully focused program that threatens shipping in the lower Gulf and the world's oil exports. It has strengthened its capability for unconventional warfare and continues to be a significant proliferator, setting up indigenous military industries and developing a greater ability to import weapons. In this authoritative analysis of interest to Middle Eastern specialists and military affairs experts alike, Anthony Cordesman concludes that the continuation of Iran's current defensive security posture depends as much on these economic factors as on the outcomes of domestic political rivalries. Iran may eventually limit any military expansion to a necessary defensive strength and set strategic goals for itself that are compatible with the legitimate interests of other nations, or it may choose a more aggressive course. Regardless of the ultimate outcome, argues Cordesman, it does no good to either demonize or excuse Iranian policies. Instead, the United States and other nations with interests in the Middle East and Central Asia need to deal realistically with Iran as a reemerging regional power.
Since the Gulf War, Iraq has attempted to win through confrontation, diplomacy, and bluster what it could not achieve on the battlefield. Defense analyst Anthony Cordesman suggests that this "war of sanctions" may be a struggle that Iraq has begun to win. Saddam Hussein's regime remains aggressive and ambitious, and its military capabilities cannot be judged solely by the current state of Iraq's armed forces. Most dangerous of all is Iraq's continuing effort to build an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. Cordesman analyzes Iraqi strategic intentions and diplomatic opportunities, and assesses the options available to the international community to counter the Iraqi threat. Iraq has effectively used diplomatic means to divide the United Nations and exploit Arab sympathies, while using its oil wealth as an incentive to win support for an easing of sanctions. The military potential of Iraq, and especially its development of weapons of mass destruction, must be considered as much for its intimidation value as for any actual utility in a possible war. A realistic assessment of Iraq's future capabilities, says Cordesman, must take into account these political and strategic factors as purely military considerations.
Perhaps no one in history has played the role of scientist as celebrity with as much skill--and as much deception--as Wernher von Braun. America's leading rocket expert and most enthusiastic advocate of space travel, he had a closet full of secrets that would have shocked his colleagues and millions of admirers if they had been told during his lifetime. "Wernher von Braun: The Man Who Sold the Moon" is the first critical biography of the young German aristocrat who created Hitler's most advanced terror weapon, the V-2 rocket, and who came to the U.S. under the Army's Project Paperclip to develop missiles as a central weapon of the Cold War. The book reveals that factions of the U.S. Army, in their zeal to have von Braun's team of scientists working for American interests, covered up what they knew about his complicity in Nazi causes and abetted him in the perpetuation of the myth he carefully created about his past. Declassified Army documents and war crime transcripts, as well as the discovery of Europe of Dora concentration camp survivors' accounts, and von Braun's published writings and personal papers, have enabled biographer Dennis Piszkiewicz to document von Braun's career more fully than any previous historian. The man who tirelessly promoted space travel, worked with NASA to collaborate with Walt Disney creating television programs and the Tomorrowland section of Disneyland, and put the first astronauts on the moon, was actually a member of the Nazi party, held a rank in the SS equivalent to that of Major, and was an accomplice in the use of slave labor from the Dora concentration camp to produce his V-2 rocket. When the Third Reich collapsed, von Braun unashamedly switched his allegiance to the victor, and adroitly distanced himself from his Nazi partners. By going on to promote NASA and sell the American people on his dreams of space exploration, he became the man who sold the moon--a man who began his brilliant career by selling his soul to the Nazis.
The factory specializing on hydraulic cranes, the engineers, armament makers and naval shipbuilders was set up in 1847 by William Armstrong at Elswick, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. It had become, before 1900, the ordanance, armour, naval and merchant shipbuilding and commercial engineering giant, Armstrong Whitworth. Armstrongs was prominent in the half dozen world-ranking armament concerns. After the extensions and exertions of the Great War, it was faced with collapse. It then became one of the earliest subjects for Bank of England involvement in industrial reconstruction. This book analyzes Armstrong's 80 years rise, decline and reorganization, treating it, in some ways, as a case study of British industrial malaise. The author has had access to Armstrong papers and minute books at Tyne and Wear Archives and Vickers Ltd, material in the University of Glasgow's Business Archives, and the extensive files of the Securities Management Trust in the Bank of England.
Why did the Cuban Missile Crisis happen? How was it resolved? By focusing on the roles of a number of key individuals, such as JFK, Robert Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, and by using recently declassified materials, this book frames answers to these questions. In so doing, it presents a cluster of new findings and arguments, including a fresh interpretation of Khrushchev's motives for putting missiles in Cuba, new information on the mystery surrounding Senator Kenneth Keating's secret sources, and evidence indicating that JFK planned to carry out a military strike on Cuba at the start of the crisis.
Proliferation poses a broad range of threats to the United States, as well as to our allies and coalition partners. Intercontinental missiles armed with weapons of mass destruction are one of these threats, and it has become obvious that rogue nations such as Iran and North Korea may be acquiring the capability to build such missiles as well as the ability to arm them with nuclear or lethal biological weapons. While such threats are now only potential ones, these shifts in technological and manufacturing capability mean that these rogue nations may be able to pose serious dangers to the American homeland, possibly as early as during the next five years. Cordesman argues that an effective defense against these threats will require linking an effective national missile defense program to an ambitious counterproliferation strategy, a strengthened homeland defense program, and a realistic approach to arms control and national security options. Cordesman argues that these threats may create a near- to mid-term need for national missile defense (NMD), widely discussed during the Clinton Administration and which seems to be emerging as a priority for the Bush Administration. This work analyzes the options available to the United States and how they relate to the delicate balance of deterrence in the post-Cold War era. As the debate on NMD escalates, this work could not be more timely.
Small arms and light artillery are the primary weapons of most armed conflicts. International responses have been shaped by the view that they are abundantly available and easily accessible to all on a global illicit market. This book argues that the arming of conflict is complexly structured and highly dynamic. It uncovers and describes the construction and interaction of structures and dynamics at global and regional levels, which shape the arming patterns of both state and non-state actors.
To capture the defense reform debate surrounding the proper application of high technology in military systems, this study focuses on tactical aircraft, an area epitomizing cutting-edge technology. Air combat history is revisited (including the 1991 Persian Gulf War) to confirm, reject, or qualify positions advocating certain technologies in tactical aviation. Emphasis is placed on enduring combat ideas and aircraft design principles. The interaction between mission requirements, inventory composition, and aircraft design is discussed to illustrate the dynamics of constrained choice that enters acquisition decisions. The relevance of reform arguments in the post-Cold War era is assessed, including the impact of political and economic constraints on future force-mix options, the shift from NATO-centered contingencies to Third World Low Intensity Conflict (LIC), and the threat of conventional arms proliferation.
The events of September 11th, 2001 altered the course of arms
control intended to eliminate weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and
made the role of international disarmament organizations
controversial. Whether they can effectively verify compliance with
the WMD treaty regime has been questioned by the United States. The
study examines this by looking at the management of the three
existing verification organizations--the International Atomic
Energy Agency, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization and
the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons--and draws
conclusions for a future institution on biological weapons. It
presents the IAEA verification system for nuclear weapons as a
model for evaluating the systems for chemical and biological
weapons. The importance of the IAEA's role has been recognized by
the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. |
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U. S. Department of the Army
Hardcover
R823
Discovery Miles 8 230
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