Background

This book provides a very complete history of the development of the Polikarpov I-16 fighter series. It actually goes further than that, as it also explains the political and economic conditions in the Soviet Union after the 1917 Revolution, when the Tsarist Russian government was replaced by Trotsky’s Communist regime in the twenties and thirties. The author goes into extensive detail explaining how the Soviet economy was going through very severe changes, with violent repression of anyone who was even suspected of disagreeing with the system. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people were slaughtered during this process, and many more were imprisoned for extended periods, but some were still allowed to work on whatever projects they had been working on.

The Vietnam War, in my opinion, is not covered as well as many other conflicts both in the written word and in some cases modeling too. Arrigo Velicogna covers one of the parts of the war not talked about frequently and that is Operation Attleboro. This operation was not well detailed until recently and as late as 2018, it was poorly covered. The time frame involved is November 2, 1966 through November 23, 1966. These three weeks are analyzed thoroughly.

Federico Anselmino is the author of several books dealing with modern Italian Air Force aircraft.

Introduction - Page 1

The F-16 was chosen by the Italian Air Force as a "gap filler" until the F-2000 Typhoon became available as a replacement for the aging Fleet of F-104 Starfighters. Initially a lease was signed to acquire 20 single seat Tornado F.3 and four F.3T Tornados to supplement 60 F-104S/ASA.. This decision was motivated by logistical, economical and political reasons. Although a superior aircraft to the F-104 the Tornado was a more costly aircraft to fly and maintain. In order to conserve funds the Itialian Air force ended the contract with the RAF and chose the F-16 "Fighting Falcon; ADF to protect Italian skies.