The Fuerza Aérea Revolucionaria (FAR), one of the most powerful and little-publicised air forces in the Americas, had Mikoyan-Gurevich (MiG) fighters as its main fighter aircraft, both in the defence of Cuban territory against the threat of US invasion and in support of Cuban leader’s efforts to export their revolutionary ideals.
 
The book casts an unprecedented look at the introduction and utilisation of all MiG models in Cuban service, since their arrival before the Cuban Missile Crisis, to current times, going through all of the conflicts in which Cuba was involved, from incidents with the Dominican Republic (Operación Pico) and the Bahamas, to its entanglements in wars in Vietnam, Syria, Guinea, Southern Yemen, Angola, Ethiopia and Nicaragua, and the recent apprehension of 'export goods' to North Korea in the Panama Canal.

The story of military aviation in Cuba before the arrival of the MiGs is also briefly presented, from the beginning of their air corps and its role in the political crises that affected the country, in Castro's Revolution and the ill-fated attempted invasion at the Bay of Pigs, contextualising the times when they happened.

This is the result of extensive research using Cuban publications, documents, interviews with former pilots, historians and contributions by veteran Cuban airmen both in exile and residing in their homeland. The book is richly illustrated with over 170 photographs and colour profiles detailing the history of all twenty models of MiG fighters operated by Cuba from 1962 to the present.

Italy began work on a new fighter-bomber in the late 1970s, aiming to field an aircraft capable of surviving in heavily defended Cold War airspace, flying at very low level, and releasing its weapons deep in enemy territory with a high degree of accuracy. In the early 1980s, Brazil joined the programme, resulting in the AMX.

Subsonic, the new fighter-bomber has also proven well suited to the types of conflicts that have proliferated in the last 25 years and has served the Italian Air Force well during close air support, interdiction and reconnaissance missions.

For Brazil, the AMX brought 21st-century capabilities to its air force, introducing advanced avionics and systems including a head-up display, radar warning receiver, chaff and flare countermeasures, identification friend or foe, and other new concepts. In this way, the AMX provided the Brazilian Air Force with a useful stepping-stone to the Super Tucano and the modernised F-5 Tiger II.
Most importantly, the AMX had a huge impact on the Brazilian defence industry, which developed new technologies and infrastructures that helped drive both military and civilian programmes developed by Embraer from the 1990s onwards, including the E-Jet family and the KC-390 transport.

This book is a must-have for specialists and enthusiasts alike, containing exclusive material, including photos and interviews that have never previously been published, and first-hand accounts of tactics and operations.