Military Engineering

The definitive history of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon agency that has quietly shaped war and technology for nearly 60 years. Founded in 1958 in response to the launch of Sputnik, the agency's original mission was to create "the unimagined weapons of the future". Over the decades, DARPA has been responsible for countless inventions and technologies that extend well beyond military technology.

In this dramatic story of World War II, Jay A. Stout describes how the US built an air force of 2.3 million men after starting with 45,000 and defeated the world's best air force. In order to defeat Germany in World War II, the Allies needed to destroy the Third Reich's industry and invade its territory, but before they could effectively do either, they had to defeat the Luftwaffe, whose state-of-the-art aircraft and experienced pilots protected German industry and would batter any attempted invasion.

In search of answers to both his past and his future, Hal and his newly formed crew must overcome obstacles unlike anything they’ve ever seen. Hal needs repairs, and there’s only so many places a Reaper can find them. Far across known space, hidden inside an uncharted slip tunnel, a hidden Reaper facility may hold the answers Hal needs. But the Union would rather the dead stay buried...and they’ll kill to keep their secrets.

Americans are fascinated by the undeniable mystique of the elite world of Navy fighter pilots. In Bogeys and Bandits, Robert Gandt takes listeners on a thrilling ride in the FA-18 Hornet, one of the fastest, sleekest, and deadliest aircraft in the world. Gandt lived and worked with several pilots learning to fly the Hornet: the identical twins from Middle America; the computer nerd with a penchant for speed; the grandson of a Tuskegee Airman, trying to live up to a proud legacy; and two women dealing with the post-Tailhook world of the Navy.

After a brazen rescue mission to the Citadel, the crew of the Trash Squid have rescued Captain Axel Finn. During their escape, a dying Admiral Jessup tells Axel he must lead the resistance, and that he must start it where his father made his last stand, on the mining world of Furia. On the planet Runi, Sergeant Jax Brito returns to her family farm to find her father on his deathbed. After dealing with the thugs that put him there, her trip is cut short when a Clipper arrives with a message—the Citadel has been attacked and forces are gathering to take it back.

Ero Bright’Lor, an outcast krey noble, has a mad plan to form an alliance from the outlaw clans. If he can overcome centuries of enmity, their combined might would threaten the entire fleet of the Krey Empire. But the cause needs a leader.

For Mack McKinley and his team of GhostWalker killing machines, urban warfare is an art. But despite a hard-won knowledge of the San Francisco streets, Mack knows from experience that too many things can still go wrong. Danger was just another part of the game--and now he's come face-to-face with a woman who can play just as tough. She's Jaimie, a woman with a sapphire stare so potent it can destroy a man. Years ago she and Mack had a history--volatile, erotic, and electric.

Kadan Montague - a genetically enhanced warrior - is called back from an important assignment in Europe to investigate a series of brutal murders. The suspect is a fellow GhostWalker and, if he isn't found, the entire GhostWalker program will be swept under the carpet, putting the lives of Kadan and all other GhostWalkers in jeopardy. Kadan turns to Tansy Meadows, an elite tracker, to help him hunt down the killer before he can strike again.

The Kobani use captured Krall ships to return to Human Space. They seek expert training for their genetically modified fighters, modern weapons and new medical technology. There's a possible block to this help in the form of death penalty laws of the Planetary Union, prohibiting gene modifications of humans. A holdover from the Gene War, which nearly extinguished humanity. A perilous descent through a war torn planet's space defenses is a first step.

A comprehensive study of the missile system that formed a critical component of the United States' nuclear arsenal. The Titan II ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) program was developed by the United States military to bolster the size, strength, and speed of the nation's strategic weapons arsenal in the 1950s and 1960s.

No more Dark Mode. That’s what Bran had promised Kat—and made her promise him. Which was their shorthand for, “Let’s stop killing people.” But that’s easier said than done when your friend is a hybrid: part human, and part mutated apex predator. Wounded and on the run from their former lives in Northern California, Bran and Kat find themselves in the Oregon wilderness, searching for a place to call home—a place where they can escape their past, with people that will accept Kat for what she is. So it seems like a miracle when they stumble across an old monastery.

We colonized 700 planets. Humankind enjoyed the benefits of expansion room and the end of wars. We even disbanded our military. Then the Krall found us. The Krall have used thousands of years of combat to select the genes of the strongest and fastest warriors. They are a species determined to dominate the entire galaxy, through destruction and annihilation of every opponent.

Koban is an uninhabited high-gravity planet with impossibly fast savage animals, which employ organic superconducting nerves. This deadly world is where the Krall tested humans for war capability.

GhostWalker Wyatt Fontenot knows the price he paid for the secret military experiments that gave him his special catlike abilities. After all, he left his bayou home a healer and came back a killer. While Wyatt and his GhostWalker brother Gator may have known exactly the sort of game they were getting into, Wyatt never anticipated where it would lead - or to whom.

On January 25, 1917, HMS Laurentic struck two German mines off the coast of Ireland and sank. The ship was carrying 44 tons of gold bullion to the still-neutral United States via Canada in order to finance the war effort for Britain and its allies. Britain desperately needed that sunken treasure, but any salvage had to be secret, since the British government dared not alert the Germans to the presence of the gold. Lieutenant Commander Guybon Damant was the most qualified officer to head the risky mission.

The Nobel laureate Otto Warburg was widely regarded in his day as one of the most important biochemists of the 20th century, a man whose research was integral to humanity’s understanding of cancer. He was also among the most despised figures in Nazi Germany. As a Jewish homosexual living openly with his male partner, Warburg represented all that the Third Reich abhorred. Yet Hitler and his top advisors dreaded cancer, and protected Warburg in the hope that he could cure it.

A humiliating military defeat by Bismarck's Germany, a brutal siege, and a bloody uprising - Paris in 1871 was in shambles, and the question loomed, "Could this extraordinary city even survive?" Mary McAuliffe takes the listener back to these perilous years following the abrupt collapse of the Second Empire and France's uncertain venture into the Third Republic. By 1900, Paris had recovered, and the Belle Epoque was in full flower, but the decades between were difficult, marked by struggles.

Under threat of destruction or servitude to the Empire, facing the fleets of the Ragnar, Finth, and Thack Delos, and the larger force of the Thandol, Mirikami prepares the Federation for all-out war. The Planetary Union, allied with the Federation, receives a squadron of new technology Federation Scouts equipped with gravity controlled weapons. They conduct a preemptive strike on a Thandol base. The emperor blames it on the Federation, unaware of the PU's existence, and orders simultaneous attacks.

Saber Wynter is running from her past when she meets Jess Calhoun, an ex-Navy SEAL who is physically and emotionally compromised by his own mysterious and violent history as a GhostWalker. What Jess senses in Saber is a kindred spirit, a lost soul desperate for sanctuary. He offers her a home, a job, and a haven where she can safely reveal the secrets that shadow her. But danger follows her, too. Now, the riddles of both their pasts are about to collide.

The Accidental Invasion of Baghdad Zoo is not just a zoo story; it is a journey into the manic layers of modern Iraq. The addictive energy of Baghdad comes to life through uplifting missions, tragedy, unshakable camaraderie, suicide bombings, unexpected comedy, Iraqi hospitality, and political adventurism. For a year, abandoned palace menageries, Green Zone politicking, raw violence, Saddam Hussein’s stolen Arabian horses, wounded bears, and checkpoint puppies spiraled the recovery into animal welfare theater.

The first operational military jet in the world, toward the end of the Second World War, the Me 262 was to be the German "miracle weapon". Mano Ziegler was involved from its inception and contributed to the design, testing, training, and even served in it operationally. Could the Me 262 have broken the Allied supremacy in the air? Hitler's Jet Plane fills an important gap in the history of the Luftwaffe and of aviation in general with new research which discloses how the first military jet plane failed to make its mark on World War II.