Focusing solely on the post-9/11 era, Guns of the Special Forces 2001-2015 examines the weapons used by elite soldiers in the War on Terror.

"Rather than a bland sales catalogue of who uses what," author Leigh Neville explains in his introduction, "this book aims to examine each broad category of small arms employed by military SOF (special operations forces) units in these counter insurgency and counter terrorism actions." Further, he says, "SOF units are obsessive about their weapons and for good reason. The small arms they carry need to operate reliably in some of the harshest environments on earth. From the snow peaked mountains of the Hindu Kush to the backstreets of Mogadishu, to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, reliability is of prime importance."

What follows is an exhaustive exposition on combat pistols, submachine guns and personal defense weapons, assault rifles and carbines, battle rifles, special purpose and designated marksman rifles, combat shotguns, sniper and anti-material rifles, squad automatic weapons and machine guns, and grenades, grenade launchers and rockets.

Each chapter provides some history of the weapon, details on calibers and ammunition, tactics and techniques for its use, and current trends in the weapon's evolution. Each chapter also contains summaries of weapon subsets, with all the details your average reader could ever want on each gun's specs and characteristics.

Much of the information provided here flew right over my head; I am not an expert on weapons by any stretch of the imagination. But Neville's descriptions are thorough and informative, very readable by even a military novice. I found the book interesting; I suspect my son, who is in the U.S. Army and has handled many of the weapons mentioned in the book, will be even more fascinated by the details discussed here.