Tom Cooper (2)

This was rather poor book from Tom Cooper whom I like as an author of numerous other books from the same publisher.

Problem is what permeates this book and in general majority of work related to Russia operations abroad. Namely how can you write about Russian operations abroad as justified/with-cause or (oh my) successful in any way? In short apparently you cannot. Why, I do not know.

I laughed out loud reading introduction where author discusses how Russia got involved in the Syria in the first place - apparently current government had no right to do it and decision to do it is analyzed in such a detail it is amazing. I assume weapon deliveries and air strikes from the west (Turkey included) had every right to be done because opposition demanded it? Right...

And then to mix all up you have hell-on-earth place called war-torn-Syria. Place in which multiple fractions and militias are fighting each other, changing alliances and playing outside world for support. In here author's bias is also strongly on pro-west side but it is so inconsistent in portraying west-friendly armies it borders with ridiculous.

For example look at Syrian war fraction called JAN (or later known as HTS - according to everyone very pro-terrorist Al Nusra) - in the beginning of the book JAN is fraction formed from reactionary fundamentalist elements released from prisons by Assad's government to mess up with the opposition (here you would say Aha! that is how fundamentalists got reign of power). Very soon they end up fighting against Assad's government (what?) and then suddenly they work with Turkey fighting Kurdish fighters (there is sentence here that goes like - Turkey is accused of working with fundamentalists which is not true. I mean if JAN is fighting for them then ... what is going on? Does author truly want to say that Turkey that knows all that goes in its own backyard does not know what JAN is?). And then JAN disappears and suddenly new formation, HTS, pops up as part of pro-Turkey FSA under attack by Assad's government and Russians, and yup HTS is actually one of many re-incarnations of JAN- which begs the question is author at least trying to be consistent? First they are released by Assad's government and in this case they are big bad wolf but when attacked by that same government due to their actions and affiliations it is a bad move by Assad? and throughout the book there is no mention of JAN/HTS fighting anyone else but Assad's government and Kurdish fighters.

Not to mention that according to the author Russians played no role at all and did not help at all but used all the ruckus to come out as power-players. This was second "what?" moment for me followed immediately with information that Russia's air forces actually has less than 50 modern planes - all the others are from the 70's/80's. Well ... what to say.....

And yes they cannot afford the better equipment - their AWACS is little better than E2C Hawkeye, they do not have radar coverage beyond the horizon and they are so plain dumb to put radar monitoring stations in such a position that mountains obstruct them, have no intelligence on the ground whatsoever, they cannot afford modern missiles at all and mostly use steel no-guidance (dumb) bombs in action (whoever read any book on Russia's military knows that they are very indiscreet when it comes to use of firepower in general (as in volley of missiles to level the city before occupation) - this is their way of doing things, unfortunately) although how would use of pin point ammunition lessen civilian casualties in dense urban areas is little bit beyond me (these same type of things are horrors for every western army but that is where collateral damage term so ... collateral damage is I suppose term only to be used with mention of precision munitions?).

So all in all Russians are incompetent, with very old equipment and ran around by Iranian RG troops.

It almost begs the question why is every western power worried about Russia in the first place. I mean after reading this book they are not just toothless bear but also claw-less and in general spineless and not able to survive on their own if there weren't fot Iranian and Assad's troops. Same troops by the way that were on the brink of total collapse before Russians came in. So somewhat of a paradox, right?

When author's bias is suppressed and he presents objective facts it is clear that Syria was used by Russia to test their operational procedures and weapons. Did they take losses, sure did and they are behind western powers in terms of application of power, use of precision munitions and what might be called expeditionary forces in general. But to say that they did not play any role, are rag-tag group led around by Iranians and Assad and working with obsolete equipment is bloody ridiculous. Russians came in with specific goal in mind and avoided as much as possible any shooting match with western powers. Even when Russian planes were shot down, Russians attacked their militia allies in Syria and restrained from attacking any western power directly. Isn't this an interesting fact.

I think author was aware of the above because in introduction he clearly says that some readers will be puzzled, angered or critical of the work but true details (since a lot of things he used were presented by word of mouth - and yes, online forums and BBS boards are in this category) wont be unknown in the immediate future.

In my opinion author should present facts in the objective matter. Unfortunately he failed in this perspective completely for this book.

Even with all the down-sides book does give good enough picture of fighting in Syria (accent is air-warfare here) and roles played by Russians and Iranians in the conflict.

So as a starting point for anyone interested in this long-running and disastrous conflict it is a solid book.… (mais)

This one is about conflict in Yemen that rages in one way or another for the last 50 years. I have to admit I was surprised that Yemen was used as proxy by nations such as Egypt, Syria and Libya - warfare with Saudi Arabia, Oman was not that surprising (I mean they are Yemen's immediate neighbors after all).

Being caught in the constant conflict, ending up split in two after the anti-royalist putsch Yemen was place were everybody sold their weapons (Russia sold weapons to both sides, US and British mostly to North, Egypt to South, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Libya worked with both parties at some point) and mercenaries ran the air forces of both parties (at some point Egypt air force personnel was de-facto running South air force) and foreign forces fought full scale wars (proxy war between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, insurgency and low-intensity conflict fought by British against Yemen first to guard Aden and then Oman) - is it so strange that this country is in a mess it is today.

Very interesting book showing how long lasting insurgency (entire nation is split across multiple lines - tribal and religious with tribes changing allegiance as long as they can get paid) can cause irreparable damage to the country.
Development of air force of both belligerents is given in full detail with beautiful color panels, very detailed information on airplane types used and how they worked in harsh climate of Yemen, interviews with former pilots from both sides and independent analysts. Author truly painted a very good picture of war-torn country that just could not transit to modern age peacefully.

Book ends with conflict of 1994 where South Yemen no longer exists and Northern Yemen ends up as a victor (for me this was somewhat sad part - South Yemen just ceased to exist, no matter the gallant effort of its people to save it; both parties tried to dominate the other but Northern tribal control was just too much and its army was much bigger - by dividing South's army during peace time North managed to encircle and destroy parts of South's army and strike the fatal blow). What seemed as a ultimate victory will end up as a prelude to the more vicious fighting decade later (these events should be given in book #2 that I am on a lookout for).

Highly recommended to aviation and military history buffs in particular.… (mais)

Second volume of air-warfare over Yemen covers period up to 2017.

After end of civil war in 1994 and decade of peace rather corrupt Yemen regime caused new uprising and internal strife. Houthi's showed up on the local scene and very soon inter-tribal warfare started anew.

It did not take long before Saudi Arabia came in and just added gasoline to the conflagration by supporting the overthrown regime 9and caused creation of AQAP in the process). Soon in all medias (I have to admit Yemen shows very well that news, politics and politicians are perhaps older than the oldest profession in the world - if you catch my point) Houthi's are declared as Iran's proxies (author clearly states that this was all done to give context for the ongoing Saudi-led intervention - Houthi's did adopt tactics from other guerilla forces supported by Iran but clearly acted against the Iran's wishes especially in choosing battles to fight). Houthi's ain't saints [as a matter of fact nobody in this conflict is - everybody is acting for their reasons (I mean just look at this paradox - Saudi not-so-open-support of AQAP and UAE organizing strikes against it - and UAE is part of the Saudi alliance (??))] that is for sure but all findings so far show that while they try to get help from anyone available they do not work closely as Iran on political, military strategical or tactical plan.

Very soon Yemen became testing ground for new weapon systems (from use of ballistic missiles to combat sorties of new generation fighters like EF 2000) and battle hardening of Arab militaries - from Saudi Arabia to UAE.

Details from the air war very soon became one-sided story since Saudi led alliance remained the only air force in the region. Author explains in great details actions of each party involved - this is first time I see guerilla army with ballistic missiles in large numbers. And not in form of multiple launch rocket systems but actual ballistic missiles with single vehicle launching platform.

As in previous books photographies are great with especially detailed plane color pages in the middle.

Again very sad story about a country divided along the religious and tribal lines, ruled by warlords that are more keen to keep the state of continuous strife than establishing order and peace (but then they would not be called warlords - right?). Currently Yemen is drawn in into what looks like a never-ending war.

Recommended to all air-warfare and modern warfare historians in general.… (mais)

Very interesting book about a conflict between what must be poorest countries in Africa. Poor maybe but at strategic position and thus Cold War superpowers are more than ready to help the parties engaged - and when Somalia invades Ethiopia things turn to bad really soon.

Best part of the book are not battles but the way respective countries organized their air force components. I was particularly impressed by the Ethiopian approach to air force organization - one more proof that there are no shortcuts to achieve excellence.

Author does make some assumptions along the way due to the almost critical deficit of official information but paints a very detailed picture of Ogaden air warfare with what he has - be it other written sources (Russian mostly) or private interviews with pilots from the war.

Recommended to all military history enthusiasts.… (mais)