A unique chapter in the history of firearms, the multibarrel, hand-cranked Gatling gun was one of the first practical rapid-fire weapons ever to be used in battle. It changed warfare by introducing the capability to project deadly, high-intensity fire on the battlefield, and portended the devastation that automatic weapons would wreak in World War I. During its 50-year career, it saw widespread service with US, British, and other forces on a host of battlefields through conflicts in Zululand and the American West, to the Spanish-American War. Although it saw widespread use in the hands of industrialized nations against various groups of indigenous native warriors, it was famously left behind by Custer at the battle of the Little Bighorn, where some argue it could have made all the difference. Featuring full-colour artwork plus contemporary and close-up photographs, this engaging study investigates the origins, development, combat use, and lasting influence of the formidable Gatling gun.

The Department of Defense (DOD) acquires goods and services from contractors, federal arsenals, and shipyards to support military operations. Acquisitions is a broad term that applies to more than just the purchase of an item of service; the acquisition process encompasses the design, engineering, construction, testing, deployment, sustainment, and disposal of weapons or related items purchased from a contractor. As set forth by statute and regulation, from concept to deployment, a weapon system must go through a three-step process of identifying a required weapon system, establishing a budget, and acquiring the system. One of DOD's main efforts to improve acquisitions is the Better Buying Power Initiative. This book provides an overview of the process by which DOD acquires weapon systems and discusses recent major efforts by Congress and the Department of Defense to improve the performance of the acquisition system.

Uncovering the class conflicts, geopolitical dynamics, and aggressive capitalism propelling the militarization of the internet Global surveillance, computational propaganda, online espionage, virtual recruiting, massive data breaches, hacked nuclear centrifuges and power grids—concerns about cyberwar have been mounting, rising to a fever pitch after the alleged Russian hacking of the U.S. presidential election and the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Although cyberwar is widely discussed, few accounts undertake a deep, critical view of its roots and consequences.  Analyzing the new militarization of the internet, Cyberwar and Revolution argues that digital warfare is not a bug in the logic of global capitalism but rather a feature of its chaotic, disorderly unconscious. Urgently confronting the concept of cyberwar through the lens of both Marxist critical theory and psychoanalysis, Nick Dyer-Witheford and Svitlana Matviyenko provide a wide-ranging examination of the class conflicts and geopolitical dynamics propelling war across digital networks. Investigating the subjectivities that cyberwar mobilizes, exploits, and bewilders, and revealing how it permeates the fabric of everyday life and implicates us all in its design, this book also highlights the critical importance of the emergent resistance to this digital militarism—hacktivism, digital worker dissent, and off-the-grid activism—for effecting different, better futures.

Defense acquisition projects cost billions of taxpayer dollars each year. These huge investments, coupled with seemingly perennial criticisms of waste and mismanagement, point out the need for a clearly written guide to the myriad functions and issues involved in defense acquisition management. Written for both students and practitioners, Management of Defense Acquisition Projects, Second Edition enables the reader to understand the broad range of disciplines and activities that must be integrated in order to achieve successful acquisition outcomes. Written by academics and practitioners, the second edition features significant updates throughout, and totally new chapters on: Systems engineering, Software Acquisition Management, Earned Value Management , Category Management and Strategic Sourcing, Organizing for Defense Acquisition Project Management , Management of Defense Acquisition Projects, Second Edition provides a basic overview of each functional area that supports defense acquisition projects as well as its application to those projects. These functional areas include, systems engineering, financial management, contract management, test and evaluation management, production management, logistics and sustainment. It also highlights significant issues such as organizational considerations, the defense industrial base, and acquisition workforce issues. Written in a manner that will withstand the many DOD policy changes that are often associated with defense acquisition programs, it features learning objectives at the beginning of each chapter and study questions at the end of each chapter.

Charles Stark Draper, often referred to as 'The Father of Inertial Navigation', was the moving force behind the development of the floated gyroscope in the United States. He was an engineer, a scientist, and an inventor; an inspiring teacher; and a dynamic leader responsible for creating the laboratory that brought inertial navigation to fruition for operational use in submarines, aircraft, and space vehicles. But Draper also created and ran the famous laboratory, now bearing his Name, that helped make MIT into one of the nation's leading research centres for government research. The story of Draper's life and his accomplishments cannot be separated from those of the Instrumentation Laboratory, which are one and the same. Thus, this biography of Charles Stark 'Doc' Draper, is also a chronological accounting of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory and its contributions to the nation. Draper's personality, drive, and intellectual curiosity, where at the heart of the success of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory. But Draper's success was also due to his association with MIT, a place that provided the resources, funding, and environment that enabled Draper to achieve greatness. The presence of the Institute's engine laboratory and the research fellowship that drew him back to MIT to pursue a graduate degree laid the ground work for his doctoral dissertation and the development of both the Engine Indicator and the MIT-Sperry Apparatus for Measuring Vibration. For those who are interested in naval history, three of Draper's accomplishments stand out: the Mark 14 lead-computing gunsight, the Submarine Inertial Navigation System, and the inertial guidance systems designed and engineered by Draper's laboratory for the Polaris, Poseidon, and Trident ballistic missiles. The Mark 14 was the first of several Draper gunsights and directors that revolutionised anti-aircraft gunnery in World War II. Close to eighty percent of all enemy aircraft shop down by the U.S. Navy ships in the Pacific during the period from October 1944 thru January 1945 were brought down by Draper equipped anti-aircraft guns. Draper's relationship with the Navy has continued to this day. Draper, the research institution bearing his Name that evolved from the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, continues to be the Navy's sole source for Trident's Mk-6 guidance system.

Over the past decade, new cutting-edge technologies have drastically changed the way radar and electronic warfare systems are implemented. This extensively revised and expanded edition of an Artech House bestseller delivers the most up-to-date overview of electronic defense systems. Bringing practitioners up-to-speed with the latest technological advances, the Third Edition details a completely new method of implementing these modern systems. Moreover, this edition is packed with updated illustrations of key assets, including aircraft, ships, and radars. Readers get a solid understanding of how sophisticated electronic warfare weapon systems work, and how these weapons can be intercepted and electronically jammed. From search and tracking radar, IR systems, and communication systems… to electronic intercept systems, countermeasures, and counter-countermeasures, the book explores a broad spectrum of defense equipment. It explains how these systems operate, the advantages and drawbacks of each system, and the theories on which these systems are based. This authoritative resource includes 180 illustrations and 400 equations that support key topics throughout the book.

The story of the HMS Hood, the last great warship of the British Royal Navy, told by the bestselling author of Hannibal. When it was launched in 1918, the HMS Hood was the flagship of the Royal Navy. As a battle cruiser, "The Mighty Hood" was fast enough to evade enemy cruiser ships and powerful enough to destroy them. But for all the Hood's might, it had one fatal flaw: armor had been sacrificed for speed. In 1941, the Hood confronted the legendary German warship Bismarck. A salvo from the enemy penetrated the Hood's ammunition magazine, destroying the British ship and killing all but three of its crew. The brutal defeat marked the end of the Royal Navy's dominance. But it also inspired Winston Churchill's vow to sink the Bismarck--a vow that in time was fulfilled. Through oral history and documentary research, Ernle Bradford chronicles the Hood's career from design to demise, with colorful insight into life aboard the ship as well as its broader historical significance.

A History of Artillery traces the development of artillery through the ages, providing a thorough study of these weapons. From its earliest recorded use in battle over a millennium ago, up to the recent Gulf War, Balkan, and Afghanistan conflicts, artillery has often been the deciding factor in battle. Black shows that artillery sits within the general history of a war as a means that varied greatly between armies and navies, and also across time.

A History of Artillery traces the development of artillery through the ages, providing a thorough study of these weapons. From its earliest recorded use in battle over a millennium ago, up to the recent Gulf War, Balkan, and Afghanistan conflicts, artillery has often been the deciding factor in battle. Black shows that artillery sits within the general history of a war as a means that varied greatly between armies and navies, and also across time.

In "Aircraft Stories" noted sociologist of technoscience John Law tells "stories" about a British attempt to build a military aircraft--the TSR2. The intertwining of these stories demonstrates the ways in which particular technological projects can be understood in a world of complex contexts."
"Law works to upset the binary between the modernist concept of knowledge, subjects, and objects as having centered and concrete essences and the postmodernist notion that all is fragmented and centerless. The structure and content of "Aircraft Stories" reflect Law's contention that knowledge, subjects, and--particularly-- objects are "fractionally coherent" that is, they are drawn together without necessarily being centered. In studying the process of this particular aircraft's design, construction, and eventual cancellation, Law develops a range of metaphors to describe both its fractional character and the ways its various aspects interact with each other. Offering numerous insights into the way we theorize the working of systems, he explores the overlaps between singularity and multiplicity and reveals rich new meaning in such concepts as oscillation, interference, fractionality, and rhizomatic networks.
The methodology and insights of "Aircraft Stories" will be invaluable to students in science and technology studies and will engage others who are interested in the ways that contemporary paradigms have limited our ability to see objects in their true complexity.