Reading List

Beyond reading this fine Substack, the following are books to consider to expand your Defense Tech and Acquisition knowledge. Thanks to the many on LinkedIn who contributed to this list.

Defense Tech and Production

• The Kill Chain

• Freedom's Forge

• Origins of Victory

• The Bomber Mafia

• Army of None

• Four Battlegrounds

• Skunk Works

• Unit X

• T-Minus AI

• Chip War

• Nexus: From Stone Age to AI

• AI for Defense Intelligence

• The Battle Beyond: Winning the War in Space

• F-35: Story of the Lightning II

Innovation

• Hacking for Defense Manual

• Hack Your Bureaucracy

• Recoding America

• How Big Things Get Done

• FIRE: Fast, Inexpensive, Restrained, and Elegant

• Simplicity Cycle

• Simpler: The Future of Government

• Irreplaceable: Standing Out in the Age of AI

Business and Startups

• Zero to One

• The Lean Startup

• Loonshots

• Start With Why

• Innovator’s Dilemma

• Rework

• Accelerate

• Made to Stick

• Switch

• The Hard Thing About Hard Things

• Crossing the Chasm

• Linchpin

• The New Makers of Modern Strategy

• Default Laziness

Acquisition and Contracting

• Defense Acquisition Reform

• FAR in Plain English

• Gov't Contracts in Plain English

• Contracting in the New Economy

• New Weapons Old Politics

• Resourcing the National Security Enterprise

FICINT

• Ghost Fleet

• Burn-In: The Real Robotic Revolution

• Wired for War

• 2034: Next World War

• White Sun War

Military Strategy and History

• Boyd: The Pilot Who Changes the Art of War

• Air Force and the Great Engine War

• Restless Wave: Novel of the US Navy

• China’s Quest for Foreign Technology

• The Hundred Year Marathon

• A Fiery Peace in a Cold War

• The Pentagon’s Brain

• Dream Machine: History of the V-22 Osprey

• Predator: Origins of the Drone Revolution

• In the Company of Heroes: Black Hawk Down

• Countdown to Zero Day

Have any good books to add? Let us know. Happy Reading.