Reviewed by: Fred Krause

This book contains 142 pages, and 130 photographs, all color. There are also a few pages of artwork. Part One provides a brief history of how the aggressors came to be in the US military. It then goes into what's left today of America's once thriving aggressor community. Following that is a chapter introducing the reader to the game of air combat, and to the Soviet built aircraft that the aggressors simulate. In chapter 4 the reader is given excerpts from interviews with aggressor pilots who discuss what it means to be an aggressor jock, and the strengths, and weaknesses of the aggressor aircraft. Part Two covers the remaining aggressor units; VMFT-401, VFC-12, VFC-13, NSAWC, and the 414th CTS. Part Three covers the type of aircraft that the aggressors fly; the F-5E/F, F-16C/D, and F-18A/B/C/D. Appendix A at the end of the book provides the command structure for VFC-12, and NSAWC. A glossary ends the book.

Having been a huge fan of USN adversaries, and aggressors in general, for years, this book was a must have for me. Most of the photographs in this book are of very high quality, with only a few "arty" into-the-sun shots. A large portion of them were also taken air to air. If you're a modeler, this approach provides many useful, and hard to find, top and bottom reference shots for camo patterns. The writing is well done, but seems to be geared to readers unfamiliar with the aggressors. If you're an aggressor fan, you won't learn much that you didn't already know. However, the beautiful photography in this book makes even the $30 retail price well worth it. About the only thing I was disappointed with, with this book, is that none of the decommissioned/disestablished aggressor units were covered. This is not the authors fault, as they very clearly set out to cover the remaining units, but more of wishful thinking on my part. There is one photo caption error on page 138, but otherwise I found the book to be very accurate. If you like aggressors, you'll like this book!

By the way, in the USAF they're aggressors, in the USN they're adversaries. For the sake of simplicity, I've referred to USN adversaries as aggressors in this review.