NATO COMBAT AIRCRAFT

Founded in April 1949 by ten European nations joined by Canada and, above all, the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was originally intended to pool the defence capabilities of the signatory nations in the context of the emerging Cold War and in the aftermath of the Berlin Blockade. The establishment of this Alliance very rapidly led to a modernisation of the armaments of its member states, and in particular of their air forces, essentially under the aegis of the United States — at that time the only country in possession of nuclear weapons, an indispensable prerequisite for any credible deterrence.

In the following decades, several nations joined NATO, while France chose instead to withdraw for a lengthy period in order to manage its own defence independently. The disappearance of the USSR, and then of the Warsaw Pact, in the 1990s led to a far-reaching reassessment of the Alliance's role, which had lost its principal adversary, even as it began to take part in various out-of-area operations and numerous countries from the former Eastern Bloc progressively joined its ranks.

In this volume of over 300 pages, the combat aircraft of the air forces of every NATO member nation — whether a founding member or one that joined more recently — are presented in detail. Nations are arranged in alphabetical order, providing a comprehensive panorama of the types in service along with their camouflage schemes and markings, illustrated by more than 600 profile drawings and around 300 period photographs.