A welcome addition to the very popular Land Craft Series and this Interim Combat Vehicle demonstrates the political folly of premature spending of ‘peace dividends’ by politicians. Aimed at model makers, this series has become popular with a much wider readership, due to the excellent text describing the subject vehicle and its deployment, including unit structures. – Very Highly Recommended
NAME: Stryker Interim Combat Vehicle, The Stryker and LAV III in US and Canadian Service, 1990-2020 FILE: R3327 AUTHOR: David Grummitt PUBLISHER: Land Craft, Pen and Sword BINDING: soft back PRICE: £16.99 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: Cold War, insurgency wars, Middle East Conflict, communications vehicle, ambulance, combat vehicle, air-portable vehicle, general purpose vehicle, cross-country vehicle, reconnaissance vehicle, armoured fighting vehicle ISBN: 1-52678-981-7 PAGES: 64, extensive illustration in B&W and full colour, including specially commissioned images IMAGE: B3327.jpg BUYNOW: tinyurl.com/fev4ehhj LINKS: DESCRIPTION: A welcome addition to the very popular Land Craft Series and this Interim Combat Vehicle demonstrates the political folly of premature spending of 'peace dividends' by politicians. Aimed at model makers, this series has become popular with a much wider readership, due to the excellent text describing the subject vehicle and its deployment, including unit structures. – Very Highly Recommended The unpleasant outbreak of world peace for ever at the fall of the Soviet Union was no more than an excuse by politicians to spend a 'peace dividend' that never existed. When any large empire falls, it never means peace for ever. The vacuum is filled by new threats and a period of significant instability. Eventually the fallen empire can be reborn in a different form that has the same appetite for an expansion of its power. The fall of the Soviet Union has demonstrated this and also the ability of arms manufacturers and war fighters to rise to the new challenges in spite of their political ' masters', as lions led by donkeys, who can still roar. The Stryker ICV was born of a need to expand the ability of rapid reaction forces to respond to new threats. It also had to grow in a period of funding constraints. The argument about the future role of armour continues without a definitive answer. The Main Battle Tank is a high cost weapons system that is vulnerable to a host of new weapons, including armed drone aircraft and anti-armour missiles. That encourages politicians, and some military leaders, in the belief that the MBT is obsolete and a cost that can be saved. Only time will tell, but there is still much development potential in powerful manned and unmanned armoured vehicles. In the meantime vehicles like the Stryker, and air portable tracked vehicles, have been filling a battlefield need in the vacuum caused by political indecision. The result has been that a multi-wheeled basic armoured design has been developed further to extend capabilities and served with distinction on the battlefield, now being considered as one suitable element to meet the resurgent Russian threat and the growing tensions with China. In the process it has become a popular modelling subject with a good choice of kits and a expanding range of enhancement products which are illustrated in specially commissioned images. This still leaves considerable scope for the skilled modeller to develop a competition grade unique model.
As with other volumes in the Land Craft Series, this new volume features extensive illustration, mostly in full colour and commissioned specifically for the series. There are many excellent full colour side view drawings, depicting a range of camouflage patterns and equipment states. There are also colour photographs of completed models and available enhancement kits. This provides a great deal of information that will enable a model maker to complete an exhibition grade model, either for static exhibition on its own, or on a diorama. It will also provide the detail for those completing working models under remote radio control, for which pinned-link tracks are necessary.
What has made this series so popular to a wider readership is the quality of the text. There is detailed historical text that covers the vehicle in general and specifically in the model, campaign and period of the subject. This includes organization details for the units operating the subject. The publisher has been commissioning multiple volumes for most subjects, and this volume’s subject is no exception, that together build into a formidable library of information for military history and technology enthusiasts to add to traditional military history books, filling detail gaps that otherwise exist.