Jane's Special Forces Recognition Guide

Okay, so there you are in the middle of the desert. Some folks drive up in a modified Land Rover. You pull out this book and identify their truck, their boots, the radios on their waists, the pistols on their legs, and the machine gun mounted in back. Yep, they're special forces, probably British. Heck, you could also identify the submarine that dropped them off, or the hovercraft that will pick them up. Etc. So, as a "recognition guide" it's pretty strange. You could think of it as a catalog. "If it's good enough for the Delta operators, it's good enough for me." Or you could take it as a guidebook to the equipment, and therefore indirectly, the missions of special forces worldwide. A fun, informative book.

As a computer simulations modeler, administrator and instructor for the US Army where computer simulation training has to keep up with what happened in the field yesterday ... a handy desk volume of weapons and equipment from conventional to special/elete forces makes my scenario productivity so much better ... a good reference volume containing key data: size, weight, caliber, or by vehicle type, country, etc is a necessity. The internet helps - but often takes too much time backing out of blind alleys. My regular sources often do not contain weapons of smaller countries, or low volume production. Vehicles in detail needed are even harder to find. You often spend precious hours lost or skipping between sites to find EXACLY what you need. This desk reference is well laid out - bringing very accurate data to the hobbiest, armchair general or 'chairborne ranger' (me) whose military uniform years ended in retirement many years ago. Being a former MI soldier ... lucky enough to contunue supporting America's finest - Jane's reference guides are stacked on my bookshelves ... older one's never thrown away ... A must read for many - a must have for a select few ...

IN A NUTSHELL: NEEDED TO CREATE THE IDEAL SHOPPING LIST FOR --- A 'must have' for every defense department of every country - large or small. 'Jane's Special Forces Recognition Guide', by Ewen Southby-Tailyour, offers any military organization with a checklist of what they will need to quickly and properly outfit their 'Special Forces' units as their 'Special' needs arise. I AM NOT KIDDING AROUND ABOUT THIS: The items in the first 70 pages of this guide look like very appealing and mainstream Christmas gift ideas for close friends and family. Here you will find a grand array of gear, equipment and duds that might make any perspective holiday or back-to-school shopper's, mouth water. Below are just a few such examples which each have their own color photo taken while being modeled [presumably] by 'Special Forces' personnel and include a short discription of the features, manufacturer and a list of countries that use the product. DESERT BOOTS, GOOGLES, BACKPACKS, HAVERSACKS, RUCKSACKS, FUR-LINED THERMO BOOTS, CELL PHONES, BINOCULARS, WINDPROOF SNIPER SMOCKS, ARCTIC GLOVES & MITTENS, COMMANDO SOCKS & EAGLE AIRBORNE ASSAULT PACK ["for demanding operations"] FEEDBACK FROM THE YOUNGER GENERATION: While I was looking over this first 'designer gear' section of the book, my teen daughter Angela wanted to grab it from me and wanted to know if she could get some of this "STUFF" for school wear!? I am pleased to say that of the 496 pages in this volume, only about 100 are within the section titled, "WEAPONS:HAND GUNS". To this book's credit however, this section's info and stats are much more complete than 'Jane's Gun Recognition' volume. In this 'Special Forces - Recognition Guide' much more specifications about each weapon are included, including ballistic info completely lacking in the 'Jane's Gun Recognition Guide'. BUT THERE IS MORE -- MUCH MORE: This volume goes way beyond just clothing and guns and in fact dedicates almost 2/3 of its contents to such hard to find topics as; Transport Aircraft, Helicopters of all types used in Special Forces, plus Amphibious vehicles, Hovercrafts, Body Armor, Seal Delivery Systems [submersible], Remotely Piloted Vehicles [RPV]. LAST BUT NOT LEAST: COUNTRY LIST OF SPECIAL AND ELITE FORCES

This is a good book to reference when training foreign militaries. It is a lot to learn, but the pictures and descriptions are very helpful. I highly recommend for anyone that wants to get smart on other country militaries througout the World.