Jane's Warship Recognition Guide (Jane's Warships Recognition Guide) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The essential guide to all the world's fighting ships.

Jane's Warship Recognition Guide shows you how to identify all the world's fighting ships. Fully updated since the 1996 edition, it is organized in a new way that makes it easier to look up ship types in service with more than one navy. Now you can directly compare how different fleets have armed and equipped warships from the same class. A comprehensive index has been added.

Over 200 classes of warship are covered with:

• Class and ship names

• Weapon systems and radars

• Full page photographs of every warship

• Detailed line diagrams

• Key recognition features

About the Author

David C. Isby is a Washington-based attorney and defense consultant. A special correspondent for Jane's Intelligence Review, he has contributed to many military and aviation publications and written extensively on the Russian armed forces. He lives in Washington D.C.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: HarperResource; Revised edition (May 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0004722116
• ISBN-13: 978-0004722115
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #952,455 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but could be a lot better, January 18, 2001

By	Mike Squyres "squyresm" (Romoland, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Maybe I expected too much. But the 2nd edition of Jane's Warship Recognition Guide comes up lacking in some respects, especially in comparison to my dog-eared, 1973 Jane's Pocket Warship Guide.

First, the good news: As a recognition guide, it does the job well. Line drawings are good, (if a bit too miniaturized) and a description of the ship's unique recognition features are covered in good detail. Full-page photographs of each class of ship are included. Most of the photos are of excellent quality, though a few (example, the converted Russian "Kiev" class carrier) are so washed-out as to be nearly useless. Still, if you're looking for a recognition guide, this book does the job. Buy it.

Now, the bad news: the technical information is erratic. Maybe I'm asking too much for Jane's to list each class of ship's main machinery in detail (make, model, horsepower, configuration - though they somehow managed to do so in my 1973 guide) but one would at least expect a one-word comment about the ship's propulsion ("CODOG," "nuclear," etc.). But Jane's offers us nothing - zero. Is France's new carrier nuclear powered? I would assume so, but who knows? Omission of this basic information is just inexcusable, even in a recognition guide.

Weapons systems, with some exceptions, are covered in better detail. Aircraft carrier descriptions include information on the types and numbers of aircraft likely to be carried by each particular class. Excellent. But one has to wonder why, after informing us that the "Typhoon" class submarines are equipped with SS-N-20 missiles, they can't bother to tell us how many of these dammed SS-N-20s each boat carries. C'mon, guys, this is kinda important information!

The bummer is that there's a real dearth of general-purpose warship books out there, and if you're looking for anything under $50, Jane's is really the only game in town. It's really not that bad - it just could have been so much better.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good general reference for any naval buff., April 9, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jane's Warship Recognition Guide (Jane's Recognition Guides) (Paperback)

The book is a good addition to any professional salior or naval buff's library. The pictures, for the most part are of good quality, but some are of little value as they are bow-on or stern-on shots. Also, the author gets the California and Virginia class vessels of the USN (CGNs) mixed together when they are two distinct classes. However, as all vessels of both classes are (or soon will be) no longer in service it is not a big issue. With the rapid pace of naval events a newer edition is needed; say in 2000-2001. The key recognition features of each class is a good feature, allowing the reader to pick them up from the picture on the opposite page.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good guide for warship recognition, July 22, 1998

By	M. Izhan Ilhan (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Jane's Warship Recognition Guide (Jane's Recognition Guides) (Paperback)

This is a wonderful book if your objective is to be able to identify ships. It has a lot of detailed explainations on how to look for distinguishing features such as what type of mast a ship has, how many funnels, locations of weapon systems, what shape the forecastle is etc. It also gives detailed line drawings of the side view of each ship to make identification easy. So, if all you want to do is to be able to recognise the ships, then this is the guide for you. On the down side, it does lack some details a military buff might be interested in, such as how many missiles of each particular type are carried, range of the various electronic sensors onboard, range of the main armament and things like that. Therefore, if you want to know those kinds of details you will have to find another book. On the whole though, this is a very comprehensive book, which covers MOST of the ships in service today, so it's actually pretty useful. It's worth the money spent to buy it.