MMP Books seems to be on a campaign to provide camo and markings enthusiasts with a nice line of quality books on those air arms that have not been all that well covered. This one concentrates on Swedish fighter jets, so that helps to keep the book from being a bit overwhelming. Sweden is one country that started building and operating jets fighters soon after the end of WWII. It was patently obvious that the turbojet was going to be the way of the future, at least in terms of speed. Reciprocating engine fighter aircraft still had the edge on maneuverability and range, but the writing was on the wall.

Sweden has generally been pretty straight forward when it comes to camouflage schemes. In fact, most nations are and keep a scheme in operational use for a considerable time before it is realized that something better is available. Keeping things VERY general, since 1950 the schemes have been: Olive over light blue, unpainted metal, olive and dark blue over light grey, the Viggen splinter scheme, and the greys scheme. Add in there an RAF camouflage scheme for its Venom NFs and that is about it. However, there were a plethora of variations involving combat schemes in Africa, test schemes, exercise schemes, and special event schemes.

The authors have chosen to do this aircraft by aircraft, starting with the J-21R and ending with the Gripen. Doing this easily shows the way that camouflage has evolved, but more than that, we are given a nice history of each of the types to go along with things. I found the section on the J-29 to be the most interesting as it goes into its operations in Congo, where it received some pretty interesting camouflage schemes.

Throughout the book we are provided with superlative photographs, many of them in full color as well as some really fine full page profiles and three-views. It is not a book one can read in a sitting and it took me several weeks to finish reading, but I learned a lot and found it to be very well written and researched. I know you will agree with me once you start turning the pages. It is a book that I can highly recommend.

April 2018