AI goes to war
Also, why a rusty ship in the South China Sea is a pain in the *ss for China
Upcoming Live Event
David will be attending the Lakefly Writers Conference next weekend, May 1st and 2nd, in Oshkosh, WI.
On Saturday, May 2, from 1:30-2:20, he will be speaking on “Choose Your Path to Publication.” 12 years in the publishing business have earned David a whole lot of hard-won lessons as well as some sweet successes. Both solo and with his writing partners, David has crowdfunded books and published indie, trad press, and small press. He’ll share what he’s learned along the way.
At the Lakefly Book Fair, Saturday from 9-4, he will sign and sell books.
If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by and say hello.
Shut up and take my money
When we talk to prospective readers about Command and Control, our pitch goes something like this:
Command and Control is the first book of a 7-book series about Great Powers competition between China, Russia, and the United States. Set a few years in the future, Command and Control has the US military being pulled into regional conflicts all over the world. For example, early in the book, there’s an incident in the Strait of Hormuz…
That last line used to go over most people’s heads. Maybe 1 out of 10 people knew where the Strait of Hormuz was.
But last weekend, when we gave that pitch to prospective readers at the Rewind Book Fair in Minneapolis, everyone knew exactly what we were talking about.
Then we tell them that a few chapters later, our fictional President invades Venezuela…
Imagine if you will…
When the eyes of the world are focused on one spot on the globe—let’s say the Strait of Hormuz—we like to see what’s happening in the rest of the world.
These days, we’re wondering how the Chinese military is processing the War in Iran. What are they learning about US military strengths and weaknesses that they can apply to their own territorial ambitions?
An obvious lesson (re)learned: There’s a good reason why chokepoints have been part of military doctrine since the first map was scratched onto a piece of animal hide. The War in Iran just drives home the point.
The Chinese are also probably totaling up the advanced munitions expended in the ongoing war and comparing that to US stockpiles and replenishment cycle times.
But what the Chinese are probably most interested in is how the US military is deploying AI. Here’s an example:
Within the first 24 hours, U.S. Central Command confirmed that more than 1,000 targets had been struck, a tempo and scale not seen since the opening hours of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.1
What does that factoid mean in real terms? In 2003, there were 2000 analysts doing the targeting work. In 2026, there were 20.
In other words, the pace of war now moves at the speed of information. Analysis is no longer the bottleneck.
You might suspect that this advanced pacing has knock-on effects, and you’d be right. The article How AI is rewriting the rules of modern warfare, is wonky but worth your time.
Warning: the future of warfare has arrived and it is not pretty.
The Chinese Navy vs. a rusty ship
China’s territorial goals are not a secret: they’ve been telling the world for the last fifty years. The figure below shows what their goals look like on a map.
Everything inside the red-dashed line, including Taiwan, is what China claims as their territory.
Notice that gold box labeled Second Thomas Shoal?
That’s the Philippines pushing back against Chinese aggression.
…the Philippines in 1999 deliberately ran aground a World War II-era landing ship on a half-submerged shoal, establishing the vessel as an outpost of the Philippine navy. The BRP Sierra Madre, which has remained on Second Thomas Shoal ever since, has now become the epicenter of escalating tensions between the Philippines and China.2
To maintain their claim, the Sierra Madre, now a rusting hulk, is manned by Philippine military personnel. They are essentially doing the same thing the Chinese are doing on other reefs, albeit a little less elegantly.
The problem with people living on a grounded boat is that those same people need regular shipments of supplies to, well, live. For years, the Chinese ignored the situation, but in recent years, they’ve decided it’s time to evict their neighbors.
Those resupply missions are a source of tension that we exploited in our latest novel, Weapons Free.
Review of the Week
Reviewer Jason Perryman had some nice things to say about Weapons Free.
This book was phenomenal. The character development, storyline and plot all were amazing and kept you trapped in the novel. I don’t want to put it down. Highly recommend.
Thanks for that, Jason. We’re sorry/not sorry about “trapping” you.
As always, thanks for being a supporter –
David & JR, AKA the Two Navy Guys
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The episode in Weapons Free that takes place during the resupply mission was riveting, not least because it was a decoy operation! No one writes modern military thrillers like you all!