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Rating: 
Summary: One of the Better Ones
Review: "Fighter Wing" as you can expect, offers a guided tour of a composite air wing, an air force combat unit compromising squadrons of mixed aircraft. With the end of the cold war, USAF brought together the once separate Strategic Air Command with the fighters and support planes of Tactical Air Command, creating a new Air Combat Command with a flexible range of assets in terms of equipment and manpower. New units now include both bombers like the B-1b and F-111 as well as fighters like the F-16. Clancy goes further than that, also surveying the essential technologies of military aviation (vectored-thrust, low-bypass engines; radar absorbsent material; reduced radar cross-section; smartbombs; etc..) from the basics to the cutting edge. While anybody could have put this package togther, I doubt that they could have done as good a job as Clancy who never loses touch with the fact that he's not a fighter pilot or even any military material himself, and always knwos just how to get across to the reader. It's sort of like a textbook you don't mind reading. The survey concludes in a hypothetical airwar set in (or over) Viet Nam. (Guess who wins...)
Rating:
Summary: The new United States Air Force
Review: After the end of the cold war the USAF, just like the other service's has had to endure budget cuts. forcing them to reorganize... This book explores that reorganization and the new formation that has evolved from it... The Composite Wing. It's strange that Clancy calls this book Fighter Wing, since the whole book is devoted to explaining this new concept, wherein the wing consists of one squadron each of F-15E's, F-15C's, F-16C/D Block 52's, B-1B's, and KC-135 tankers. Some parts of the book may be considered boring but it's still a good read
Rating: 
Summary: Not a Smooth Landing
Review: If you have read any of the other books in the series then you know what to expect with this one. The book follows the familiar format, it details out the machinery used, the troops, the division make up of the topic in the armed forces, a few interviews and it ends with some fictionalized short stories describing the expected types of encounters this area would face in the future. All in all a basic book on a fighter wing that gives you all the basics. The Clancy style of writing, lots of facts and plodding movement work well in this type of book given that you buy it to learn about the subject.
Overall it is a good effort and if you have been happy with the other books in the series you will enjoy this one. My only complaints were that there did not seam to be enough photos of the equipment for me. Sure they had all the main items, but I wanted a picture of every jet covered in the book. I also would have liked to have seen a comparison of the other counties main combat fighters - something he did with his Submarine and Aircraft Carrier books. I was also disappointed in that he did not cover all the Air Force equipment, missing were the A10 and B52 to name a few. And one last little complaint - what was with his ending every chapter with some junior high school type rah-rah cheer. We are talking about the military; do we need this type of comic book love-fest mentality?
Rating: 
Summary: Fighter Wing: An updated Cold War History
Review: In the updated and expanded version,Tom Clancy goes into great detail of why air superiority was and remains key to U.S. armed forces. For instance, the f-15 originally developed to combat Russian Migs, is now becoming obsolete. Third World contries can now rival the fighter. This is now why the U.S. developed the f-22. The radically advanced fighter has stealth, advanced avionics, and radar. This was SUPPOSED to fight new Migs and Sokui aircraft, but the Cold War ended. With Russia as our ally the U.S. has endured many cuts an reformation of airforces. Why hasn't the f-22 replaced the f-15? Why has the b-2 not become the U.S.'s primary bomber? This is a must read for all those interested in answers to these questions. Plus, analysis on why the U.S. is developing the Joint Strike Fighter!
Rating:
Summary: Accurate account of a top Air Force Base and its mission.
Review: The best part of this book was everything up to page 172. He starts right off explaining the principles of how airplanes fly, then goes on to more technical stuff like the difference between a turbojet and a turbofan, and then goes into awesome details regarding aviation ordnance. All of the information is very readable, and really helped me sort out all kinds of questions I had, like the different purposes and missions for different aircraft, how stealth technology makes aircraft invisible, and so on. I especially enjoyed his explanations of the different kinds of missiles and bombs and how they work. The story about the 8-inch howitzer tubes that they turned into "bunker-busting" bombs during the Gulf War was the best!!! Like I said, this book was fantastic right up to "This Isn't Your Daddy's Air Force," part, and then it got really boring. Let's face it: Air Force pilots as well as their support personnel are very good at what they do. However, I really don't care about their (short) history. As far as the future is concerned, I'd rather read about what the air forces of other countries are capable of doing. In that respect, "Submarine" was a lot better.
Rating:
Summary: Off we go into the wild blue with Clancy and Gresham....
Review: The third book in The Guided Tour series, Fighter Wing is a non-fiction book devoted to an Air Force Composite Wing. (Why it's called "Fighter Wing" escapes me, since the 366th Wing includes a wide range of combat aircraft!) Like the other books in this seven-volume series, Fighter Wing gives the readers a reasonably interesting look at the U.S. Air Force since its restructuring in the early 1990s. Here, for instance, is where I found out the Air Force had renamed its major commands; Strategic Air Command (which controlled the bombers, particularly the B-1, B-2, FB-111, and B-52 aircraft) and Tactical Air Command (which controlled the smaller fighters and fighter-bombers) merged and became Air Combat Command. The book discusses the theory and history of air power, the training of the men and women who fly for the Air Force, and, of course, the planes and weapons of a typical Composite Wing. As in most of the books in the Guided Tour series, photographs, graphics, an interview with a senior flag officer, and a fictional scenario depicting the combat roles of a Composite Wing are included. The book is informative without getting too technical, and one comes away with a bit more inside information about how the modern Air Force works.
Rating:
Summary: Fighter Wing: An updated Cold War History
Review: The third book in The Guided Tour series, Fighter Wing is a non-fiction book devoted to an Air Force Composite Wing. (Why it's called "Fighter Wing" escapes me, since the 366th Wing includes a wide range of combat aircraft!) Like the other books in this seven-volume series, Fighter Wing gives the readers a reasonably interesting look at the U.S. Air Force since its restructuring in the early 1990s. Here, for instance, is where I found out the Air Force had renamed its major commands; Strategic Air Command (which controlled the bombers, particularly the B-1, B-2, FB-111, and B-52 aircraft) and Tactical Air Command (which controlled the smaller fighters and fighter-bombers) merged and became Air Combat Command. The book discusses the theory and history of air power, the training of the men and women who fly for the Air Force, and, of course, the planes and weapons of a typical Composite Wing. As in most of the books in the Guided Tour series, photographs, graphics, an interview with a senior flag officer, and a fictional scenario depicting the combat roles of a Composite Wing are included. The book is informative without getting too technical, and one comes away with a bit more inside information about how the modern Air Force works.
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