Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War is a 2015 techno-thriller by P. W. Singer and August Cole. Set in the near future, the book portrays a scenario in which a post-communist China, assisted by Russia, launches a technologically-sophisticated attack against the United States in the Pacific Ocean that leads to the occupation of the Hawaiian Islands. Plot Prior to the main events of the novel, Indonesia collapsed into a failed state after a second war in Timor, and a dirty bomb was detonated in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, which caused a massive spike in the price of oil and the collapse of the House of Saud. A newly-discovered natural gas field in the Mariana Trench provides China with energy security. Popular unrest leads to the removal of the Chinese Communist Party, and China becomes governed by a mix of businessmen and military leaders known as the Directorate. China and Russia have also developed the ability to detect and to track nuclear-powered ships by using Cherenkov radiation, which allows China to effectively neutralize the US Navy's nuclear submarine fleet. China plans to gain control of the third island chain and to secure dominance in the western Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, the US military is overstretched in terms of manpower and resources from ongoing military operations in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Kenya. Using a computer virus to infiltrate the computer systems of the Defense Intelligence Agency, China launches a massive cyberattack on the United States that cripples many technologically-sophisticated systems, including the F-35 Lightning, which has been compromised with infected microchips in the supply chain. The attack includes the extensive use of anti-satellite weapons, which leads to the disabling of the Global Positioning System and the loss of several communications and reconnaissance satellites, which are critical to the US military. Russian fighters and drones launch a raid on the US military base in Okinawa, and the US military presence in Japan is neutralized. Supported by Russia, China captures Hawaii after a bloody battle and establishes the Hawaii Special Administrative Zone. The attack leads to the nearly-complete destruction of the US Pacific Fleet. The titular "Ghost Fleet" refers to the US Navy reserve fleets, which the United States reactivates as a low-tech fallback. The residents of Oʻahu and the surviving US military personnel launch an insurgency, known as the North Shore Mujahideen (NSM), against the Chinese occupiers by using the tactics that have