Product Description

Comprehensive guide to the world's special forces and their kit. Special forces can be defined as 'a military unit trained for unconventional operations and especially counter-insurgency'. The often covert and unique nature of these unit's duties require specially manufactured weaponry, transport and reconnaissance hardware, and this guide provides a compact and authoritative guide to kit used by the elite forces of the world. Up-to-the-minute photography and information comes from the leaders in the field of defence and security information, Jane's Information Group. The author is retired Lt. Colonel Southby-Tailyour who served with the Royal Marines and is the established editor of Jane's Amphibious and Special Forces. This is the authority on Special Forces, ideal for any level of military enthusiast. So if you want to know about Special Forces weapons or transport or even their elite use of surveillance equipment including human presence sensors then this is the kit you need! Introduction Weapons -- hand guns, rifles, knives Surveillance equipment -- intelligence gathering/surveillance devices, passive night goggles, movement sensors, human presence sensors, UAVs Transport -- light attack vehicles, all terrain vehicles, amphibians, high speed insertion craft, long-range insertion craft, canoes, rigid inflatable boats, inflatable raiding craft, submersible RIBS, swimmer delivery vehicles, midget submarines, diving equipment, air cushion vehicles Communications -- voice UHF, VHF, HF, morse HF, Electronic warfare/monitors Personal combat equipment The World's Special Forces.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #96810 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

About the Author
Retired Lt.Colonel Southby-Tailyour (OBE) served with the British Royal Marines for thirty two years. Currently Ewen works as an amphibious consultant for international companies and defence organisations and skippers naval explorations to the Arctic.Ewen is also the acclaimed Editor of Jane's Amphibious and Special Forces.

Customer Reviews

Details not available elswhere
More detail than most and therefore helpful. It is a vast subject and so impossible to fit everything in. I particualarly liked the list of who has what bearing in mind the book is about equipment and not organisations (and yet almost every one of the organisations listed here is not listed anywhere else that i know of). Most other books cover the well-know special forces in greater detail but this book's list is, at least, the most comprehensive I've seen.
Incidentally Greece does not - yet - operate Black Hawk (at least not when this book was, apparantly, 'put to bed' so any adverse comment on that and the list of what each country has is, perhaps, a little un-called for. There is more kit than listed but as a starter I thought the lists here are fine, helpful and clear.

Jane's Special Forces Recognition Guide
Good, but not worth the wait. This book covers in reasonable detail various weapons, vehicles and items of equipment deployed by special forces units the world over. The kit information is interesting, covering rarer vehicles such as UAVs and submarines. However, a number of 'used by' lists were missing key users (eg. Greece, which operates Blackhawks in number, is not mentioned). Furthermore, I was sorely disappointed to find very little information on actual units - a list no longer than a dozen pages from a 500-page guide. I recommend this book for people who want a general guide to special forces kit, but for those who want detailed information on units or operations, don't bother.

FORGET IT - Very poorly written
When I first saw the book, the name Jane's gave me some sort of insurance for quality and precision, unfortunatly that isn't the case. The individual short reviews often refer to issues we don't really care when buying this sort of book. For instance: it describes the way several pistols work, and since most of them work similarly, we have several similar descriptions.
In the first section the display of gear is totally random: they mix goggles with sacks with harnesses, then socks, then rucksacks, then socks, then boots, then helmets, then socks, then goggles again! By the way: who cares about socks? Do we buy the book to read about the socks used by the military?
In the UAV section, they include a pilot night-vision item!!!
The inclusion of fighters is totally unapropriated, and definitly it is the books biggest flaw. Among others we have: China's J7, Q5, Alpha Jets, Flankers. Of course every fighter in the world can cooperate with spec ops, as well as every warship, every tank, or, for that matter, every car, motorcycle, you name it. But to include a few fighters is just rubbish. Even a Hawker Hunter appears, with the excuse that it still flies in at least 2 countries. Wow, that is definitely a Spec Ops secret weapon, a Hunter! Please!!!
The hand gun section is a laugh: I don't believe that any operator would field a Walther P38! And why didn't any of the Glock range wasnt included? In the end of this section they present a suppressor. One! It seems they remembered on the last minute to Para shoot drop one there.
On the boat section we have the worst mistake. On pages 333 and 345 they repeat the USA Mk V boat; same photo, same text with minor changes! So it isn't a simple repetition problem.
Finally, there is a section of 5 UAVs in the end of the book. Yes, we had one before.
So, is the book good? No. Is it good value for the money? No. Would I buy it again? No. Would I recommend it? A BIG NO!