4 stars

I have somewhat ambiguous feelings about this book. It either has too much information to be a coffee table book, or too little information to be an informative book for military aviation enthusiasts. So if you fall somewhere in the middle, and you want to know more than the average person, but you also don’t geek out on the stuff, I think it’s a good book to start. There’s a good amount of photos, although, it’s somewhat hard to keep track when the description is two pages forward, and you need to flip back and forth to read different columns. Overall, it’s a fine book for the right reader.

An approachable history of the aircraft used by Special Forces worldwide. Notable for descriptions of some rather obscure aircraft used by Special Forces. Goes beyond just descriptions of the aircraft to include a history of their use in Special Forces roles and operations.

Shorter than the bulk of these guides to military aircraft from the redoubtable Amber Books, this looks at the birds used for dropping special forces on enemy soil, the planes that can take off from within football stadia, and the choppers and drones that have featured in so many missions and media over the last century. The visuals are great, the text is authoritative without over-burdening one with too many military acronyms, product codes and jargon, and if you have any slight interest in such a subject this is a fine book. If only the drone section's databanks (that you get for pretty much all but the secretive Chinese craft) and main text could agree on dimensions and weight, it might be nigh-on perfect – and my digital proof may well have been ironed out before you see it. I mean, we might all expect Chinooks to be here, and Black Hawks, but Cessna products?! The scope, research and knowledge of this is estimable, hence a strong four stars.