Book Reviews

F-5 IN ACTION

Lou Drendel/Squadron Signal Publications

Available from selected bookshops or the Napoleon Military Bookshop, 366 Pitt St, Sydney, 2000, rec. retail $8 to $9.

Lou Drendel, well known to AADR readers for his Winning series, has come up with the goods again in this, his 38th effort for the Squadron Signal “In Action” series. The Northrop F-5 of course needs little introduction, originally conceived in the late ‘fifties as the N-156 Freedom Fighter the simplistic design of this aircraft ensured its success amongst second-line air arms. Over 3300 T-38/F-5 aircraft have been built and the much improved F-5E Tiger II version offers an air combat fighter more than comparable to the MiG-21 family. So effective is the F-5E that generally in Dissimilar Air Combat Training (DACT) a numerical superiority of F-5Es will triumph over such notables as the F-16, F-15 and the F-4 Phantom.

Drendel’s book is heavily illustrated, not only with pictures of various F-5 examples from operator nations but also in his excellent colour artwork. Considering that the F-5 is destined to remain in production probably till the end of this century in its latest F-5G model and production should comfortably exceed 4000 units then a book of this nature, penned mid-course in the aircraft’s career, could have considerable reference value in years to come.

THE OBSERVER’S WORLD AIRLINES AND AIRLINERS DIRECTORY

Available from major bookshops, around $20.

The Observer’s World Airlines and Airliners Directory provides the most compact reference source to the world’s airline industry available anywhere, covering in great detail both the operating companies and the aircraft that they use.

This second, completely revised edition, contains information on approximately 1000 companies operating scheduled or charter air services throughout the world. The principal companies are described in detail, with special reference to their origins, antecedents, the growth of their route networks and their current fleets. In addition, brief details are provided for several hundred smaller companies that offer third-level or charter services with multi-engined equipment.

A separate section of this volume describes all the airliners that are currently in production and the principal older types still in service. Included in this section for the first time are the new types launched at the end of the ‘seventies and destined to play an important role in airline operations in the ‘eighties such types as the Airbus A310, the Boeing 757, the Boeing 767 and British Aerospace BAe 146, together with, from the Soviet Union, the Ilyushin II-76 and 11-86. Each of these 80-odd aircraft types is illustrated by three-view line drawings and photographs, and full specifications are included.

PDR YEARBOOK 1980

Available from Peter Isaacson Publications, 46 Porter Street, Prahran, 3181, rec retail $9.50.

Once again the Young family, daughter Claire and father Peter ably assisted by Denis Warner and backed up by the comprehensive editorial team that produces the monthly Pacific Defence Reporter, have produced the PDR Yearbook.

The 1980 edition is better than ever in a new easier-to-read format which lists the full order of battle of the world’s armed forces ranging from diminutive Chad to the might of Soviet Russia. More interesting, from a reader’s point of view, is the series of overviews on the events of the past year and where this might have us in the immediate future. Denis Warner offers a very interesting insight into some of the political events that pre-empted the military situations throughout the past 12 months and ably brings home the often-overlooked fact that military might is only a tool of politics, nothing more and nothing less.

The PDR Yearbook, at $9. 50, is about half the cost of previous efforts and is money well spent if you want to have a bevy of facts and figures (ex-IISS) available for future reference.

AIR WAR – VIETNAM

Available from major bookshops, rec retail $21.95

“Smart bombs”- remotely piloted munitions, operated by electro-optics and laser guides, able to knock out heavily-defended bridges from miles away. SAM-7 or Strela missiles aimed by infrared homing devices, carried by one soldier, and capable of destroying helicopters and slow-moving aircraft. High-altitude aircraft carrying thousands of pounds of explosive power and able to pinpoint targets far above the range of conventional anti-aircraft guns. Electronic counter defences against surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). Sensors. Infra-red equipment. Anonymous air war was planned and waged in detail through computers. Star Wars? A scenario for air battles in the 21st century? No. This was the reality of the air war in Vietnam! What this book reveals is as sobering as it is startling.

The war in Vietnam may have ended in frustration for the United States, but it permitted the American Air Force to investigate, discover, perfect and implement the kind of weaponry and military strategy that would influence the nature of warfare for many years to come. In the Arab-Israeli War of 1973, in fact, the American public became aware of SAMs, smart bombs and electronic countermeasures. All of these techniques were employed in Vietnam- nam-feverishly developed by both sides and have become the daily preoccupation of both Soviet and American weapons experts.

Because the US “withdrew” from the struggle in Southeast Asia, and because the government in Hanoi was never anxious to release facts about the effects of “futuristic” air tactics on both the civilian population and the military effort of it own armed forces, Americans will perhaps never know the full story. Air War-Vietnam does give us an accurate and comprehensive a view of how the American Air Force fought and to a large extent the battle in the skies above Vietnam. It also reveals that although the war was waged without atomic weapons, it was by no means “conventional.”