Customer Reviews

Fighter Wing: A Guided Tour of an Airforce Combat Wing (Tom Clancy's Military Referenc)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mr. Clancy is right on when it comes to writing about the military, I only wish I had as many powerful allies in the military. His ability to capture both the science of flight and the thrill of getting aboard a F-15E Eagle and hitting the target range is excellent! He uses descriptions of how air power made it possible to swiftly win the war over Iraq, and incorporates inverviews with key commanders from that conflict!

One piece of advice, I too hope that someday the Republic of Vietnam decides that communism isn't for them and revolts, but that type of fiction is better left for one of his action/thriller novels.

I am about to enter the USAF, and piced this book up to begin to familiarize me with the language and equipment the USAF uses to carry out its various missions. It certainly was the right choice.

The third book in The Guided Tour series, Fighter Wing is a non-fiction book devoted to an Air Force Composite Wing. (Why it's called "Fighter Wing" escapes me, since the 366th Wing includes a wide range of combat aircraft!) Like the other books in this seven-volume series, Fighter Wing gives the readers a reasonably interesting look at the U.S. Air Force since its restructuring in the early 1990s. Here, for instance, is where I found out the Air Force had renamed its major commands; Strategic Air Command (which controlled the bombers, particularly the B-1, B-2, FB-111, and B-52 aircraft) and Tactical Air Command (which controlled the smaller fighters and fighter-bombers) merged and became Air Combat Command.

The book discusses the theory and history of air power, the training of the men and women who fly for the Air Force, and, of course, the planes and weapons of a typical Composite Wing. As in most of the books in the Guided Tour series, photographs, graphics, an interview with a senior flag officer, and a fictional scenario depicting the combat roles of a Composite Wing are included.

The book is informative without getting too technical, and one comes away with a bit more inside information about how the modern Air Force works.

"Fighter Wing" as you can expect, offers a guided tour of a composite air wing, an air force combat unit compromising squadrons of mixed aircraft. With the end of the cold war, USAF brought together the once separate Strategic Air Command with the fighters and support planes of Tactical Air Command, creating a new Air Combat Command with a flexible range of assets in terms of equipment and manpower. New units now include both bombers like the B-1b and F-111 as well as fighters like the F-16. Clancy goes further than that, also surveying the essential technologies of military aviation (vectored-thrust, low-bypass engines; radar absorbsent material; reduced radar cross-section; smartbombs; etc..) from the basics to the cutting edge. While anybody could have put this package togther, I doubt that they could have done as good a job as Clancy who never loses touch with the fact that he's not a fighter pilot or even any military material himself, and always knwos just how to get across to the reader. It's sort of like a textbook you don't mind reading. The survey concludes in a hypothetical airwar set in (or over) Viet Nam. (Guess who wins...)

In the updated and expanded version,Tom Clancy goes into great detail of why air superiority was and remains key to U.S. armed forces. For instance, the f-15 originally developed to combat Russian Migs, is now becoming obsolete. Third World contries can now rival the fighter. This is now why the U.S. developed the f-22. The radically advanced fighter has stealth, advanced avionics, and radar. This was SUPPOSED to fight new Migs and Sokui aircraft, but the Cold War ended. With Russia as our ally the U.S. has endured many cuts an reformation of airforces. Why hasn't the f-22 replaced the f-15? Why has the b-2 not become the U.S.'s primary bomber? This is a must read for all those interested in answers to these questions. Plus, analysis on why the U.S. is developing the Joint Strike Fighter!

After the end of the cold war the USAF, just like the other service's has had to endure budget cuts. forcing them to reorganize... This book explores that reorganization and the new formation that has evolved from it... The Composite Wing. It's strange that Clancy calls this book Fighter Wing, since the whole book is devoted to explaining this new concept, wherein the wing consists of one squadron each of F-15E's, F-15C's, F-16C/D Block 52's, B-1B's, and KC-135 tankers. Some parts of the book may be considered boring but it's still a good read

This is one of the better books in this Tom Clancy series, especially if you are interested in the subject. One interesting observation is that in Tom's interview of Chuck Horner, General Horner doesn't come off as well as he does in "Every Man a Tiger", especially in comparison to the parallel John Warden interview. Colonel Warden is a visionary who wrote a groundbreaking book on air operations and knew enough military history to consider writing a book about the Alexander the Great and his relevance today.

If you have read any of the other books in the series then you know what to expect with this one. The book follows the familiar format, it details out the machinery used, the troops, the division make up of the topic in the armed forces, a few interviews and it ends with some fictionalized short stories describing the expected types of encounters this area would face in the future. All in all a basic book on a fighter wing that gives you all the basics. The Clancy style of writing, lots of facts and plodding movement work well in this type of book given that you buy it to learn about the subject.
Overall it is a good effort and if you have been happy with the other books in the series you will enjoy this one. My only complaints were that there did not seam to be enough photos of the equipment for me. Sure they had all the main items, but I wanted a picture of every jet covered in the book. I also would have liked to have seen a comparison of the other counties main combat fighters - something he did with his Submarine and Aircraft Carrier books. I was also disappointed in that he did not cover all the Air Force equipment, missing were the A10 and B52 to name a few. And one last little complaint - what was with his ending every chapter with some junior high school type rah-rah cheer. We are talking about the military; do we need this type of comic book love-fest mentality?

accurate description of the book's quality, good price, fast delivery. I would certainly recommend buying from this seller. thanks.

well, i havent finished it yet, but from what i've read its very good. It provides an understanding of the military comprehensible to civilians. Kudos to Clancy.

This is an excellent in-depth view of how our USAF is run. The capabilities of our aircraft. If you enjoy military non-fiction then you'll love this book.