The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World: Their Ships, Aircraft and Systems

This is an excellent reference book, well researched and with mostly high quality images. As with any printed reference book on this subject, the very latest ships are either missing or their entries are based on the public domain information that was available at the time it was sent for print, which may have changed (hence the 4 stars). However, with what is in the book, plus careful research on the Internet, it's possible to build a sound understanding of what naval forces around the world are using.Well worth the price. I'm using it alongside a 2011-12 copy of Jane's Fighting ships, which despite being significantly more expensive contains similar textual information but mostly lower quality images than The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World so, if you can only justify buying one book on naval ships, I'd go for The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World and use Jane's for their other excellent reference books, such as their Naval Radar, EW and weapon systems books.

A masterpiece which is a must for all naval enthusiasts. Obtained from a US seller for well under the RRP. Very heavy at nearly one thousand pages! A must for any enthusiast of the worlds navies.

OK so it is an enormous book, sold as new, but picture very misleading as what came was just a plain dark covered book with no dust cover and not a sign of a picture. Despite e-mailing the seller - HAY-ON WYE BOOKSELLERS more than once, I have had absolutely no reply, acknowledgement or apology. I would recommend not using this seller despite it's apparent good feedback