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demonxore's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
In my personal rating system, I would give The Kill Chain 3 stars because of how repetitive it is, but since this is an outward-facing venue I'll give it a 4 star review. It is important for folks to read this book and understand the current state of affairs in the defense world.
The Kill Chain by Christian Brose details the ways in which the American defense system has stagnated over the past 30 years while other countries (namely China) have been investing their efforts into technological integration of traditional warfare platforms. This book highlights that while the US continues to spend money on defense, that spending goes toward slight upgrades of the same platforms over and over again rather than creating new and innovative solutions that will change the game. There is an alarming lack of creativity in defense development, and this complacency could lead to the US eventually lose a major conflict with power players.
While the repetition of Brose's thesis was a bit irritating to me, I think it could be useful to help persuade those who are resistant to changing the current defense system that the US really needs increased innovation in the DoD space, along with greater commercial partnerships. Neo-luddites who believe that the best way defense systems should operate is by hoardes of warfighters hand-jamming data into outmoded computers really need to read this book.
The Kill Chain by Christian Brose details the ways in which the American defense system has stagnated over the past 30 years while other countries (namely China) have been investing their efforts into technological integration of traditional warfare platforms. This book highlights that while the US continues to spend money on defense, that spending goes toward slight upgrades of the same platforms over and over again rather than creating new and innovative solutions that will change the game. There is an alarming lack of creativity in defense development, and this complacency could lead to the US eventually lose a major conflict with power players.
While the repetition of Brose's thesis was a bit irritating to me, I think it could be useful to help persuade those who are resistant to changing the current defense system that the US really needs increased innovation in the DoD space, along with greater commercial partnerships. Neo-luddites who believe that the best way defense systems should operate is by hoardes of warfighters hand-jamming data into outmoded computers really need to read this book.
christoke's review against another edition
4.0
***4.5 stars***
So I finished this in 5 days, which is a major testament to the pacing (and narration in my case) of this book. The book reads like a thriller, with the terrifying topic being that technology is rapidly changing, and the US military is falling behind. The author narrates the book, and he really drives home the urgency and grim nature of the problem our nation faces.
This book does an excellent job of looking at this problem with global and historical perspective. It is particularly timely reading this book as Russia is invading Ukraine. It talks about how powers like Russia and China have been preparing to re-emerge as super powers, and how our limited status as the Hyper-power has led our military to become complacent. It is particularly disconcerting (albeit valuable perspective) to learn that if we went to war with Russia and especially China, we would almost certainly lose right now.
This book does become a bit repetitive which is the only reason I gave it the 4.5, but it also has many interesting sections where the author images what the future of our military could look like.
The author spent a lot of time working with John McCain, and I do like one philosophy McCain apparently insisted on - not describing lots of problems without potential solutions. This book describes what challenges our country faces, but also what we could do to meet those challenges. He also provides some perspective on what failing to do so could mean.
So I finished this in 5 days, which is a major testament to the pacing (and narration in my case) of this book. The book reads like a thriller, with the terrifying topic being that technology is rapidly changing, and the US military is falling behind. The author narrates the book, and he really drives home the urgency and grim nature of the problem our nation faces.
This book does an excellent job of looking at this problem with global and historical perspective. It is particularly timely reading this book as Russia is invading Ukraine. It talks about how powers like Russia and China have been preparing to re-emerge as super powers, and how our limited status as the Hyper-power has led our military to become complacent. It is particularly disconcerting (albeit valuable perspective) to learn that if we went to war with Russia and especially China, we would almost certainly lose right now.
This book does become a bit repetitive which is the only reason I gave it the 4.5, but it also has many interesting sections where the author images what the future of our military could look like.
The author spent a lot of time working with John McCain, and I do like one philosophy McCain apparently insisted on - not describing lots of problems without potential solutions. This book describes what challenges our country faces, but also what we could do to meet those challenges. He also provides some perspective on what failing to do so could mean.
nunelson's review against another edition
4.0
First five chapters are alarmist and meh. Rest of book is great.
korey's review against another edition
5.0
Eye opening look at our military capabilities. Things are changing fast, is the US keeping up? Author covered every major area that I could think of. Well done.
emoira_m_morrigan's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0