Contemporary Authors

• Crashback: The Power Clash Between the U.S. and China in the Pacific Scribner (New York, NY), 2017

• Aviation Week - http://aviationweek.com/author/mfabey

  Home > Michael Fabey
  Michael Fabey
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  mike_fabey@aviationweek.com
  Author Bio

  Michael was a military reporter specializing in U.S. Defense Department contract analysis and naval programs for Aviation Week.

  Michael received the 2014 Timothy White Award from ABM, the association of business information and media companies.

• Space News - http://spacenews.com/veteran-defense-journalist-mike-fabey-joins-spacenews/

  Veteran defense journalist Mike Fabey joins SpaceNews
  by SpaceNews Editor — August 2, 2017
  Credit: Jerry Millevoi
  Credit: Jerry Millevoi

  ALEXANDRIA, Virginia — SpaceNews is pleased to announce that veteran defense reporter Mike Fabey has joined its Alexandria, Virginia-based editorial team as a senior staff writer covering military space, a beat he previously covered as Defense News’ air and space warfare reporter in 2005 and 2006.

  Mike was an Aviation Week Pentagon-based editor from 2006 to 2016 where he won the 2014 Timothy White Award for his Pulitzer-nominated investigative series about the U.S. Navy’s attempts to hide the crippled condition of its newest warship. He’s also well known for exclusive reports he filed from a Chinese destroyer during at-sea drills. Since last summer, he’s been writing for IHS Jane’s and Scout Warrior.

  His first book, “Crashback: The Power Clash Between the U.S. and China in the Pacific,” will be published by Scribner this fall.

• Michael Fabey - https://www.michaelfabey.com/about-me

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  ©2017 BY MICHAEL FABEY.

  MICHAEL FABEY

  Award Winning Investigative Journalist

  fabeyships@aol.com

  Home

  About Me

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  CHINA MARITIME COVERAGE
  cno and me_edited_edited.jpg
  EVOLUTION OF AN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST

  Getting Personal

  Born into the tough neighborhoods of Northeast Philadelphia and defying the odds to attend college in Trenton, New Jersey and finish in Australia (using a bicycle for transportation), Fabey learned the essence of success as an investigative journalist early: self-preservation, persistence, and a tough insistence to go where a story leads.

  Fabey has done what it takes to get the news that matters to U.S. national and economic security for over 30 years. That has included chasing pirates into the Amazon of Brazil, boarding as crew on cargo ships and gaining access to U.S. warships, and somehow convincing Chinese authorities to allow him to interview them aboard their most sensitive military naval vessels.

  ​

  In the mid-1990s, Fabey worked as a merchant seaman on a cargo ship from the southeast of Florida to the sister coast of Sao Paulo Brazil for the Journal of Commerce, via Venezula in the mid-1990s. For the rest of that decade and until 2005, he collected datelines like postage stamps throughout Latin America, Europe and the Persian Gulf, living and working for a bit in Brazil, with passable Portuguese in tow. ​

  ​

  Like many people, Fabey saw his perspective on life and career change after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. From that point forward, his reporting focused on stories about U.S. national defense. Since that time, he’s flown in F-15s, V-22s and a variety of other aircraft; spent weeks on aircraft and nuclear missile submarines; and lived with troops as they traveled in Bradleys, Humvees and whatever else they they got around on.

  ​

  Fabey is real news and analysis.

  ​

  Snapshots
  U.S. MARITIME COVERAGE
  Corrected Fabey photo_edited.jpg
  ABOUT MICHAEL FABEY

  Investigative Journalist and Author

  Now the Americas naval writer for Jane's and the U.S. editor for Jane's Fighting Ships, Michael Fabey has reported on military matters throughout his career, writing for such publications as Aviation Week, Defense News and currently for Jane's. As a foreign correspondent, he worked in newsrooms around the globe for The Economist Group, O. Estado de S. Paulo and a variety of other publications.

  Fabey's series about a new class of U.S. Navy warships that the Pentagon rejected for its failure to meet specifications earned him the coveted 2014 Timothy White Award for journalistic integrity from the Association of Business Information and Media Companies (ABM).

  ​

  Fabey has also won other national, state and regional journalism awards and is a frequent panel speaker for Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) on military investigations. He

  was a finalist for an annual IRE group award for stories about improperly installed aircraft carrier torpedo shields.

  In researching Crashback, Fabey secured unparalleled access to the American and Chinese naval brass as well as their warships, aircraft and bases. That research also lead to several exclusive stories and blogs:

  NavWeek: Command And Control

  NavWeek: Home for the Holidays

  NavWeek: Ford Tour

  NavWeek: Ballad of the Traveling Gun

  NavWeek: China Whirl

  NavWeek: Ballistic Bombast

  Navweek: Pac Man

  NavWeek: Beach Bash

  Aviation Week: Why Did China Participate in RIMPAC With One Ship And Spy On It With Another?

  National Interest: US THAAD Deployment to Korea Rattles China

  Scout Warrior: Naval Think Tank Study Calls for More Submarines, Smaller Carriers

  Scout Warrior: Navy to Expand UnderSea Drone Program​

QUOTED: "Fabey gives his Chinese sources a thorough workout ... and he has a sharp eye for what faces the American fleet if push comes to shove."
"of interest to policy wonks [and] naval strategists."

Fabey, Michael: CRASHBACK
Kirkus Reviews.
(Aug. 15, 2017): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Fabey, Michael CRASHBACK Scribner (Adult Nonfiction) $26.00 10, 24 ISBN: 978-1-5011-1204-1
An examination of military confrontation in the western Pacific and the dangers it poses for those who now play a calculated game of chicken.Take your pick: China is either our adversary or our friend. You'll find plenty of books to support either position. Military journalist Fabey takes the former point of view; indeed, the first sentence is, "The United States and China are at war in the Western Pacific." That war, he adds, hasn't come down to widespread shooting--yet--but is nonetheless "warm," waged over small atolls and islands that may not add up to much but stand as outposts of "military hegemony and the diplomatic and economic influence that naturally follows that hegemony." Who the hegemon is depends on your point of view. The author would seem to agree with both the proposition that sovereign states have territorial rights and that U.S. shipping should enjoy freedom of the seas. He worries, naturally, that America is not playing hard enough--though the current administration supports hard power, it has isolationist tendencies, too. Fabey often writes as if possessed by the set piece- and cliche-happy ghost of Tom Clancy: "No other navy in the world would challenge it. But there was one navy that was willing to try"; "Can't we just talk this over? At the highest echelons of the U.S. Navy there certainly are senior officers who are willing to do that...In short, they believe that the U.S. can actually trust China." For all its alternately leaden and overwrought passages, however, there's good on-the-ground (or, better, on-the-sea) reporting from both sides of the conflict. Fabey gives his Chinese sources a thorough workout, the little emperors and true believers alike, and he has a sharp eye for what faces the American fleet if push comes to shove, as well as for the countermeasures that U.S. military leaders are already taking by way of "naming and shaming" and otherwise containing China's ambitions at sea. Of interest to policy wonks, naval strategists, and specialists in the region.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Fabey, Michael: CRASHBACK." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Aug. 2017. Book Review Index Plus,
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• Washington Times
  https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/nov/19/book-review-crashback-by-michael-fabey/
  Word count: 1193

  QUOTED: "Michael Fabey’s disturbing new book makes plain that China is now a muscular presence in its part of the world, and with clear ambitions to expand its role."

  A Chinese danger that must not be taken lightly
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  By Joseph C. Goulden - - Sunday, November 19, 2017

  ANALYSIS/OPINION:

  CRASHBACK: THE POWER CLASH BETWEEN THE U.S. NAVY AND CHINA IN THE PACIFIC

  By Michael Fabey

  Scribner, $27, 305 pages

  Intelligence analysts and media pundits alike are puzzling whether Xi Jinping, president of China, deserves the recent Economist cover calling him the world’s most powerful man.

  Perhaps so. But Michael Fabey’s disturbing new book makes plain that China is now a muscular presence in its part of the world, and with clear ambitions to expand its role.

  Mr. Fabey, a veteran defense writer, maintains that China and the U.S. are engaged in a “warm war” for naval dominance in the Pacific that we have “been losing.”

  The crux of the crisis is China’s claim of territorial sea rights far beyond those set by international conventions. The issue is complex. For centuries most maritime powers accepted that sovereign territory extended three nautical miles off the shoreline — the range of cannon shot.

  After several changes, in 1982 the United Nations formalized “Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs), which give coastal nations control over sea resources up to 200 nautical miles from its shores. (The U.S. did not sign the treaty, but recognizes EEZs in practice.)

  Ignoring the international protocol, China has claimed expanded sea areas by constructing artificial islands as far as 600 miles from its own shores.

  The work is centered around the Spratly Islands, 14 sandy outcrops ranging in area from one to 100 acres, spreading the South China Sea.

  With Spratly ownership claimed by half a dozen other nations — all closer than China — Peking simply “built” its own island on an outcropping of coral, 14 miles long and four wide, almost completely submerged at high tide.

  Chinese engineers dredged up coral and sand to create 86,000 square feet of dry land — enough to accommodate a military airstrip, rocket launchers and support troops. Other such “faux islands” are rising from the sea in the area. Adm. Harry Harris, U.S. naval commander in the Pacific, calls the islands the “Great Wall of Sand.”

  Fishing and oil exploration by outsiders are forbidden within EEZs, but the treaty gives the “right of free passage” to all nations during peace. The Chinese, however, claim the rules forbid passage to “military operations,” which includes electronic signals gathering and reconnaissance — which the U.S. has long considered essential to prevent surprise attacks.

  The Navy routinely ignores such warnings and insists on asserting its “right of passage” through contested areas. In 2003, the USS Cowpens, a cruiser, was forced to stop dead in the water to avoid ramming an harassing Chinese vessel. (The Navy calls such a stop a “crashback.” Hence Mr. Fabey’s title.)

  Perhaps more dangerous is Chinese harassment of U.S. reconnaissance flights, its planes routinely coming within yards of contact. In 2001 a Chinese pilot collided with a U.S. reconnaissance plane. He crashed and died; the American craft made an emergency landing.

  But the Chinese are buttressing their navy, building an aircraft carrier (replacing an obsolete ship the Soviets donated years ago) and developing dozens of vessels equipped with missiles.

  Fortunately, the U.S. Navy is countering China’s ambitions with new technologies that modernize the missiles that are our dominant sea weapons. And despite the Chinese encroachments, Mr. Fabey’s description of the new weaponry — active and under development — warrants optimism. Some items:

  • The electromagnetic rail gun, which uses electricity rather than gunpowder. Magnetic fields created by high electrical currents accelerate a sliding metal conductor between two to launch projectiles at speeds of up to 5,600 mph. The range is over 100 miles. The non-explosive solid projectile, essentially a chunk of steel, has such kinetic energy that “getting hit by one is like being hit by a small asteroid.”

  • High-energy laser beams that counter incoming missiles by burning holes in their skins and causing thermal damage to their interiors. Another more powerful laser (30 kilowatts of power, versus 10) “can bore a hole through two inches of steel.” An even more powerful version should disable a battle ship or carrier.

  • The Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LFASM) has an electro-optical terminal seeker which can match a ship’s imagery to a target database. Thus the missile can sort out a target vessel within a well-defended group of enemy vessels. Modifications in the works can propel a thousand pound warhead against a moving vessel at a range of 1,000 miles.

  There is much more. Consider the Zumwalt-class destroyer, whose slope-sided superstructure bears close resemblance to the old Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia. Its profile makes the Zumwalt the naval equivalent of a stealth aircraft.

  But the ever-present danger: a young pilot, whether American or Chinese, panics during a close-by flight and fires the shot that starts a war.

  China’s “wall of sand” is a danger that must not be taken lightly

  • Joseph C. Goulden writes frequently on intelligence and military affairs

  Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
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• Wall Street Journal
  https://www.wsj.com/articles/review-west-pacic-showdown-1513125397
  Word count: 1255

  QUOTED: "accessibly written book."
  "Crashback provides a telling picture of the operational challenges the U.S. Navy faces in the western Pacific. More ships and better weapons systems, however, are merely part of the complex puzzle that America must solve in its relations with this vital and fast-changing part of the world, and Mr. Fabey devotes too little attention to the others. These include prosaic things like fostering better seamanship and shoring up alliance relationships with Asian countries, to make sure that weak countries like the Philippines do more for themselves and that richer ones, like Japan and South Korea, do more together."

  Review: West Pacific Showdown
  Spurred by three decades of economic growth, Beijing is beefing up its navy in the South China Sea. Should the U.S. be more concerned? Howard W. French reviews ‘Crashback’ by Michael Fabey.
  Review: West Pacific Showdown
  Photo: Xu Dongdong/VCG via Getty Images
  By Howard W. French
  Dec. 12, 2017 7:36 p.m. ET
  15 COMMENTS

  In December 2013, just as China began testing its newly launched aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, in the hotly contested seas to the south of the country, the U.S. Navy decided to conduct a test of its own. The skipper of a Ticonderoga-class cruiser, one of the most powerful ships in America’s fleet, ordered his crew to shut down its radar and go into EmCon Delta, the stealthiest of its operational states, hoping to approach the Chinese carrier undetected for a sly bit of reconnoiter.

  To say that things didn’t go as expected would be an understatement. The American ship, the Cowpens, was itself being shadowed by a Chinese submarine, and with the carrier coming into view, the Liaoning’s crew contacted the cruiser by radio, angrily demanding that the American ship leave the area immediately.
  Review: West Pacific Showdown
  Photo: WSJ
  Crashback

  By Michael Fabey
  Scribner, 305 pages, $27

  The American captain, Greg Gombert, insisted initially—and correctly—that the Cowpens was operating in international waters and was therefore well within its rights. But the Chinese escalated the incident by sending smaller vessels across the bow of the Cowpens at unusually close distances. Capt. Gombert was forced to undertake a rare emergency maneuver—a jarring reversal of his engines known as a “crashback”—and then to abandon his observation mission. “I am very sorry for what’s happened,” he told his Chinese counterpart, Capt. Zhang Zheng, who must have been delighted. “I didn’t mean to disturb your operations.”

  “For the first time,” notes journalist Michael Fabey, “the Chinese navy [had] openly confronted a U.S. Navy combatant ship on the high seas—a cruiser, no less—and forced it to back down.” In “Crashback: The Power Clash Between the U.S. and China in the Pacific,” the Cowpens incident serves as the backbone of a narrative tracing the recent history of China’s swift rise as a maritime force and of what the author sees as its increasingly overt ambition to replace the U.S. as the predominant naval power of the western Pacific.

  Unbeknownst to the broad public, Mr. Fabey writes, there are, on any given day, “tens of thousands of young American sailors and scores of navy ships out there in the Pacific, steaming hundreds of thousands of miles here and there, showing the flag at port calls, displaying ‘presence’ and ‘posture.’ ” Even less suspected by most Americans is Mr. Fabey’s arguably alarmist sense that the U.S. is already locked in a conflict over the high seas with China—a conflict he characterizes as a “warm war,” to contrast it with the decades-long competition with the former Soviet Union.

  This accessibly written book, built around stories like the Cowpens showdown, and drawing upon both the access and expertise the author gained as naval editor of Aviation Week, provides much useful information about the relative capabilities of the Chinese and American navies, as well as their rather different trajectories. Mr. Fabey describes China’s massive shipbuilding efforts, the personalities of some of its leading naval officers and its crash efforts to improve the quality of its sailors, most of whom, only recently, were high-school graduates at best.

  The American struggles that Mr. Fabey highlights, meanwhile, are those of a long-reigning incumbent superpower: how to sustain public and political support for a hugely expensive force in need of more ships and substantial modernization. He walks readers through the introduction of new types of American vessels and examines the Navy’s lack of long-range, ship-borne missiles. He also ponders whiz-bang technologies like laser weapons that, he optimistically suggests, could make defending the U.S. fleet from China both technically and economically feasible in the near future.

  In one key area Mr. Fabey’s book goes wrong. “To win this warm war requires only that the United States force China to peacefully operate within the very system that made China’s economic rise possible in the first place,” he writes early on. “In other words, America must require China to respect and maintain the status quo.”

  There is no quibble here over the importance of international rules, respect for which provides the best prospect of avoiding hot conflict in the future. But Mr. Fabey’s definition of victory is unrealistic. Throughout the book he expresses frustration that the U.S. doesn’t simply stand up more robustly to China at sea. He repeatedly berates excessive accommodation by the Obama administration, including its apparent unwillingness to confront Beijing around the artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea.

  “Crashback” was completed soon after the victory of Donald Trump, and in its closing pages the author expresses the hope that the new administration will be more assertive. So far, this has not happened; Mr. Trump, as any president, has had to weigh a broad range of issues with Beijing—starting with the threat posed by North Korea—before deciding how forceful to be with China at sea.

  China’s flouting of international law around maritime territorial claims is a serious matter. But what has changed the longstanding status quo in the western Pacific, most of all, is China’s three decades of high economic growth, which enabled Beijing to build an increasingly world-class navy. James Stavridis, the retired four-star U.S. Navy admiral who spent over half his career in the Pacific Fleet, recently estimated that, in military terms, China is already at rough parity with the U.S. in East Asia.

  “Crashback” provides a telling picture of the operational challenges the U.S. Navy faces in the western Pacific. More ships and better weapons systems, however, are merely part of the complex puzzle that America must solve in its relations with this vital and fast-changing part of the world, and Mr. Fabey devotes too little attention to the others. These include prosaic things like fostering better seamanship and shoring up alliance relationships with Asian countries, to make sure that weak countries like the Philippines do more for themselves and that richer ones, like Japan and South Korea, do more together.

  Mr. French is the author, most recently, of “Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China’s Push for Global Power.”

  Appeared in the December 13, 2017, print edition as 'West Pacific Showdown.'