It seems today that most of the more dangerous military endeavours have been done by what we now call Special Operations units. These are folks like the SEALs, SAS, Rangers and others who have had the training to work in small units to go after objectives that may be small and require precision. Things that cannot be properly done by large movements of troops for fear of having the targets disappear or cause a lot of mayhem.

These people need to have vehicles.

Probably the first of the Special Ops types that most of us have heard of were the British Desert Rats of WWII who operated behind enemy lines for weeks and sometimes months. They used modified Jeeps as their fast transport and had standard Chevy trucks for the base vehicles. These latter vehicles carried spares, food, ammunition, water, fuel and other things needed.

Each area of combat or commitment requires vehicles that are designed to operate with the greatest efficiency in that area. This book concentrates on those vehicles used since 2001 in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As both these areas of operation were not solely US involvement, it is not just a mass of special Hummvees (though a lot of it is). The British have their Land Rovers and Australians have their Perentie LRPVs. There are also dune buggy looking vehicles operated by the SEALs, and several nations use vehicles by Pinzgauer, Toyota (!) and Menacity. Probably the most recent vehicle is the US M-ATV designed by Oshkosh and shown on the front cover. There are others as well. Each of them developed to meet a specific need in terms of speed, armor protection, and armament (to name a few things).

Author Leigh Neville covers the specifics on each of these types of vehicles and where they are being used. He also goes into how well each of them have been performing. One thing not touched on is the cost. While I'm sure they are effective, the opposition basically gets around in pick-up trucks. A bit of a disconnect, eh?

The book is superbly illustrated with color images of all these vehicles, mostly from official government sources and those who have worked on or operated these vehicles. It is further enhanced by the excellent art work of illustrator Richard Chasemore, so you get a good look at what is currently being used on the front lines.

An excellent book on a most interesting subject and one that I am positive you will find to be of interest. One that will be pulled from the shelves time after time and one I can highly recommend to you.

October 2011

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