Military Model Scene

Title: US Naval Air Power, West Coast 2010-20
Author: Patrick Roegies
Publisher: Key Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-913870-24-9

Another of these excellent little books from Key Publishing. A highly illustrated 128-page soft-cover book, volume 2 in their Air Forces series, looking at US Naval Aviation on the West Coast over the 10 years from 2010 to 2020, though in practice, it does cover later years as well.
As it sets out in the Introduction, the US Naval Aviation arm celebrated 100 years in 2011 and this takes an interesting look at how it is still developing today. The mainstay these days is the F-18, even having taken on the additional role of electronic warfare platform as the Growler, in place of the old Prowler. That is by no means the only topic for the book though. Among the 19 chapters are others on flight training, the challenges of reduced funding from Sequestration in 2013 and how the US Navy coped with that, West Coast air bases, the development of the Carrier Air Wing, Patrol Squadrons, and the move from P-3C Orions to P-8A Poseidons, development of the Early Warning systems of the E-2 Hawkeye, Helicopters, how the Naval Air Warfare school (Top Gun) has developed, unmanned AVs and of course the introduction of the fifth generation aircraft, the F-35C. If that isn't enough, I have to say there is more in it as well.
With a closing chapter that considers the plans for the future development while the while book is highly illustrated with over 150 high quality photographs which I think will be enjoyed by aviation enthusiasts and modellers alike.
Thanks to Pen & Sword for the review copy.

Robin