Osprey's The Rocket Propelled Grenade is a truly outstanding introduction to this great battlefield equalizer, solving many puzzles, such as its name RPG. "Rocket Propelled" never made much sense, what other purpose than propulsion could a rocket have? RPG actually is the Russian abbreviation of Reaktivnoi Protivotankovii Granatomet. The Russians have a real talent to develop sturdy, cheap and simple weapons.

These weapons deliver bang for the buck in asymmetric warfare, offering the modern Davids a chance against today's Goliaths. It just happens that today's Davids are the enemies of the West. Thus, like the Kalashnikov, the Soviet designed RPGs are the weapon of choice of rebels, insurgents and terrorists. Flexible light infantry forces which try to survive on a highly mechanized battlefield. Defensive measures against RPGs further increase the sticker price of weapon systems and reduce their flexibility, thus making them less suitable in an asymmetric conflict.

Rottman is highly knowledgeable about this topic and has personally experienced the RPG's power during his service in Vietnam, which results in a condensed and excellently illustrated booklet. On the strength of this title, I will probably pick up Rottman's other title in this series about the Browning gun. The only thing not working in the Osprey Weapon series are the amateurish, out of place paintings. Give the authors those four extra pages to work with. ( )