I don’t even know where to start in reviewing this book. First of all, there is something to be said about not judging a book by its cover. Before reading this book, I had some premade ideas of what it would be like. I thought it would be something like the following: Military scientists work on a problem that requires input from an astrophysicist and once they came to a conclusion they would talk to their civilian counterparts, be it at NASA or other offices within the government, and the whole book would be a back and forth of how science and American defence work together to prevail. Remember, these were my assumptions of what I suppose I should say “what I wanted the book to be”. While the book may have been different than I imagined, I don’t say this to say it wasn’t worth the read. So let me tell you what the book turned out to be.
Accessory of war almost reads like two different books as the first half of the book takes you on a chronological journey through history’s great civilizations discovering technology that gave them a competitive edge in war. From the Babylonian being able to calculate when there would be a full moon allowing them to know when is a good time to surprise an enemy, the Greeks use geometry to map the universe, using triangulation to calculate how the earth and sun were apart, the Phoenician and then the Portuguese refining the use of the start to navigate the waters and controlling the height sea to china discovering gunpowder and the Ottomans using it crush the Byzantine empire right to modern-day. with the British developing reader racing against the Germans developing the first rockets with the V2.
Accessory to War almost read like two different books between the first half and the second. The first half of the book very much reminded me of the Cosmos; A Spacetime Odyssey series where the authors, I feel as though Neil DeGrasse Tyson wrote the initial part of the book, taking you on a journey of discovery and adventure as man mastered seafaring navigation, in order to attain and conquer their foes. This journey through history also showcases how military technology actually is a strong force in advancing mankind and really exemplifies how every civilization that, either ignores technological advances or fails to harness them, has ceased to exist. From the Greeks to the Romans, Ottomans, Spanish, French, English and finally the current American empire and we are all witnessing the rise of the Dragon China, who is definitely not ignoring the importance of technology.
Journey of discovery and adventure as man mastered seafaring navigation, in order to attain and conquer their foes.
The second half of the book is titled the ULTIMATE HIGH GROUND. From this point on the book is only about military strategies and technologies that couldn’t have been possible without astrophysicists. This merger between military and science started with the Cold War and the space race between the Soviets and the USA. Early in the space race, the Soviets were out competing with the USA in almost every way, but then the USA committed to the Mount Everest of space travel. They put a man on the moon and, once this was accomplished, America was on top. Like everything though, one can never rest on one’s laurels and over time the USA lost its commitment to space supremacy.
This led to other countries collaborating with the USA to further space defence programs along with explorations, and the distinction between other countries focused on non-military space endeavours.
It was in this second section where any hopes I had of finding out that the US military and NASA had an unspoken exchange of information was shaken. On page 227 the author tells the story about how the Hubble Space telescope came to be in the 1990s. Apparently, once it arrived in space it had some serious focusing issues caused by the number of expansions and contractions the space frame encountered in outer space. A senior scientist with NASA, Eric J Chaisson put it like this:
“When I discussed the jitter enigma we were experiencing with the Hubble, I was astonished to see so many nodding heads. Right then and there, midway through the briefing, a rage came over me. I felt like shouting, “Damn it, why didn’t you tell us!” For, apparently, these people- some of whom were Key-Hole Controllers- had years ago first noticed specifically this problem…
Later that evening… I was stopped by a serious-looking person sporting a short, gray suit, ID leash around his neck and absolutely radiating that woods-are-lovely-dark and a deep dementor. He told me the name of someone to contact at Lock-heed who he said might be able to help us. At which point the intellect operative did an about-face and marched away.”
Apparently, the Key-Hole is a class of satellite that the military had been developing for years to the point of having several replica telescopes for reconnaissance called KH-9 HEXAGON. This scope looks at the earth, not outer space, but it becomes glaringly obvious that, while the military and intelligence communities are watching what their civilian counterparts are doing, the civilian scientists are totally in the dark developing without collaboration from the military community. I found this fascinating and at first quite wasteful, but with further thought, I felt like that is an extreme commitment to secrecy and to engineering problem-solving. Had the military jumped in right away they wouldn’t have been certain that the original design was the best path as civilian scientists would not have encountered the same roadblocks.
Finally, as a Canadian, I was happy and proud to read about the contribution Canada made to space exploration by building the canadaARm and canadaARm 2. Both were developed right in my home province of Ontario along with a myriad of other robots and electronic sensors that Canada has been tasked with developing as a valuable contributor and partner to the international space community. The book also covers in some detail the challenges, contributions, and goals of many of the other space-faring nations including China.
Overall, I give this book a 4 rating out of 5 It’s a good book, but I would only recommend it to someone who is interested in some military technology history and also curious about what the military has planned and what it has been able to execute in space.