Re: Famous Russian Aircraft Series
well worth the wait with superb technical details and pictures of all the operators and much bigger and broader than the earlier Aerofax series by the same author.
its been done in the usual lavish and glossy format of the Russian Aircraft series but considerably smaller in Size around 330 Pp than the others as the combat accounts except for the Chechen strikes are very few and sketchy.
The book again scores with excellent details on the design considerations , technical details , variant details on the SU -24 MR . MP ECM , unflown BM/BM2 etc and mid-life upgrades, weapons , peace time ops , superb colour profiles and details of all the overseas operators like Azerbaijan , Uzbekistan , Algeria , Syria etc and serves as an excellent collector's item on this enigmatic cold war warrior.
The bonus for me is the first photo on Sudan's Su-24 and superb artwork (recently AFM June 2015 published some in Saudi Arabia deployment) and an unheard snippet on India being a potential operator having placed orders in mid 80's for the SU 24 MK as a replacement for the Canberra and possible a nuclear strike role but cancelled the same in 1990 (?)
What the book lacks in comparison with other books in the series is a chapter on comparison with its contemporaries - The F-111 , Tornado etc which would have embellished the book - the earlier Aerofax series had a few Pp covering this.
Also the author states that all 24 nos of the Su-24 supplied to Iraq were ferried w/o any loss to Iran during the Gulf war and a surviving 25th example was captured by coalition troops and ferried back to US for inspection during the second war - i have not seen any photos or mention of this example so perhaps this is apocryphal. Otherwise a good add to the collection - waiting next for the Mig 23/27 tome .
Of interest to this forum are details of the Su -24 BM/BM2 (twin fins) - some pics and details had appeared in Gordon's Unflown Wings tome - there are a few additional details but no new pics.
