Once again, AirTime Publishing digs into its archives of articles from its superb World Airpower Journal and International Airpower Review to come up with this compilation of 7 battlefield warplanes. These are aircraft whose sole purpose is to move mud. Not for these pilots the glory of air to air combat, jockeying for position to get the best position for launching some sophisticated air to air missile. No, these folks sole purpose is tactical airpower at its best; support of the ground forces.

So the editor has chosen six battle field tested aircraft and one hopeful. Today's ground attack aircraft will often have rotary wings and operate close to the front lines. In that respect we have the AH-64 Apache, AH-1 Cobra and Mi-24 Hind, along with their multiple variants and subtypes. The 'wannabe' in this mix is the Kamov KA-50. This most capable appearing helicopter was stifled in its development by the falling of the Iron Curtain, and with it a sure production run of many hundreds of aircraft. With the lack of a certain customer due to budgetary constraints, and the feeling in other countries that Russian equipment is somehow inferior to others, it is quite possible that the Ka-50 will never see widespread use. And I could be wrong.

The other three aircraft are the Harrier II as used by the USMC and the RAF, the USAF's A-10 Warthog, brought back from near death by Desert Storm, and the Russians equally capable Su-25 'Frogfoot'. All three of these fixed wing aircraft are combat veterans, all of them seeing action in a small area of operations between the Adriatic Sea and the Indian Ocean.

In common with other books of this type, there is the usual historical background, operational capabilities, system analysis, variant descriptions and units that have or are operating the type. This means a plethora of high quality color and black & white images totaling near 700, all crammed into 336 pages between the 9 x 12 hardbound covers of this tome. Frankly, it is one of the best books for the bucks that is on the market. It is a book that will appeal to the historian, aircraft enthusiast and modeler alike and if you are even remotely interested in the subject, you'll be quickly drawn in. Most highly recommended.

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