Encyclopedia Of Modern US Military Weapons - By COLONEL TIMOTHY M. LAUR AND STEVEN L. LLANSO ( 1995 )

For the first half of the twentieth century,
most major weapons systems had rela-
tively short life spans; the Spad XIIIs,
which Captain Edward Rickenbacker
flew over the Western Front, had a service
life of only a few years. During World War
II, it was unusual for an aircraft or a tank
to have a service life of more than five or
six years. Ships were by their size and ex-
pense somewhat longer lived, but almost
inevitably their mission was downgraded
over time. For supporting systems, like
field telephones, artillery, radio sets,
bomb sights, rockets, radar and elec-
tronic countermeasures, the life span was
even shorter, sometimes measured in
months, not years, as technology over-
took it.
Today, however, the life span of weapon
systems is often measured in decades;
who would have imagined when the B-52
first flew in April 1952 that the Strato-
fortress would be scheduled for service
well into the next century? Who would
have thought that the great battleships Iowa, New Jersey, and Missouri would be
hauled from their mothballs to be put
into combat again? Times and technol-
ogy have changed, and as costs have risen
and the defense budget reduced, more
effort is placed in extending the useful
lives of the weapons already in existence.
This is but one of the reasons that the
Encyclopedia of Modern U.S. Military Weap-
ons is such a valuable contribution to the
literature, for the weapons it describes
will be relied upon by the American
armed forces and their allies for the fore-
seeable future. The book is the most com-
prehensive and complete reference avail-
able on U.S. military equipment, and will satisfy the requirements of anyone from
novice to expert.
Written in a brisk, accessible style, this
encyclopedia provides a collective de-
scription of the principal weapons sys-
tems of the United States at the most
definitive juncture of American defense
policy, which is being redefined to an un-
precedented degree by the end of the
cold war. For the first time in two centu-
ries, Europe is not threatened by a single
great continental power. The U.S. de-
fense policy is no longer predicated on
mutually assured destruction, or on the
defeat of massive Soviet land armies
pouring through the Fulda Gap. Instead,
attention now has to be focused on the
proliferation of threats—it was not ob-
vious to the West that during the cold war
the Soviet Union was maintaining peace
within its sphere of influence. Russia's
sphere of influence is now much dimin-
ished, and the policies of many of the
former states of the Soviet Union un-
predictable, to say the least. With the in-
evitable proliferation of nuclear weap-
ons, the United States faces new and im-ponderable threats which, because of
continuing cuts in the U.S. military bud-
get, will have to be addressed primarily
with the weapons systems currently in ex-
istence.
The authors have provided listings for
all U.S. weapons anywhere in the world,
encompassing systems as old as the Doug-
las C-47 "Gooney Bird" and as new as its
twenty-first-century successor, the Mc-
Donnell Douglas C-17 Globemaster III.
Each individual listing provides informa-
tion on the weapons system, its evolution,
development, variants, combat experi-ence, and specifications. The coverage of
ships is particularly valuable, for it in-
cludes a listing of every ship within its
class, by hull number, ship's name,
builder, and with key dates. Similarly ex-
haustive detail is provided for armored
fighting vehicles, missiles, and other
weapons.
Tim Laur and Steve Llanso are experts
in the field and their book is an impor-
tant contribution to military literature,
providing as it does an instant reference
to the weapons systems of all the services
of the United States.