One thing about the Soviet Union is that they were in a constantly using their military products to influence areas in the world that had not fallen under the sphere of Western powers in Europe or the United States. They specifically chose nations who had either decided to give communism a try, were non-aligned, or were otherwise ruled by dictators that were friendly to the Soviet Union.

Part of that friendship was that the Soviets would provide modern equipment for their military forces. One of the areas where this influence was felt was in the Soviet Union's neighboring nations of Asia. This ranges from Turkey in the west to North Korea in the east, but does not include nations that we would consider the Middle East .

There are two major nations in this sphere who greatly benefitted from Soviet assistance in the beginning, and that is China and India. Both nations already had an aviation industry of sorts and both not only license built Soviet products, but both improved on the designs to meet their own needs. China ended up being a major exporter of reverse-engineered and improved Soviet fighters during a time when relations between China and the Soviet Union were at a low point.

Other nations who had a considerable force of Soviet and latter Russian aircraft were North Korea, North Vietnam, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Other nations which had a mixture of types or perhaps not all that many include Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Burma, and Sri Lanka. Other nations have either only recently bought Russian equipment for their police forces or have flown captured planes or those flown by defectors.

In this latest book is the culmination of the triumvirate that includes volumes on the Middle East and Africa. Each section is alphabetical by nation and has a historical background to their air forces, photos of the aircraft they used as well as some excellent color profiles. Any combat use of these aircraft is also included in each section. Each nation also has a very extensive data section that lists every known aircraft ever owned by these nations by type, serial number and a host of other facts. These tables are quite extensive and very interesting in their own right. I can only imagine that trying to research some of these nations is quite difficult due to a lack of information. For instance, in the pages of several nations, there are profiles of IL-28s, but nothing about them in the write-up. This may be an editing omission as well.

It is a book that I am positive you will very much enjoy reading as I know I did. It belongs on the shelves of any student of Soviet military aircraft and the nations of this region of the world.

July 2014

Review book courtesy of Specialty Press, where you can order your copy of this and many other superb aviation and modeling books. Visit their website at the link above or call them at 1-800-895-4585

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