PRE-ORDER • ESTIMATED SHIPPING Q1 2027
LIMITED EDITION • PRINT RUN OF 1,000 COPIES
Reserve your hardback
Long nights over Afghanistan. 'No Gas, Kick Ass' missions over Iraq. The opening of the air war over Libya. The fight against ISIS around Kobani. Twenty Years at War brings two decades of Strike Eagle combat into a large, full-colour hardback made to be read closely and kept.
Around 100,000 words of operational history, technical explanation and first-hand testimony sit alongside the photography. This is a substantial coffee-table book with the depth of a detailed reference: a volume to display, open at a favourite spread and return to as part of your aviation library.
The print run is limited to 1,000 copies. Pre-order to reserve a copy of the physical edition; the current shipping estimate is Q1 2027.
Made to sit beside Part 1
The planned 242 × 300 mm landscape hardback format matches Be Afraid of the Dark. Silk-coated paper and large illustrated pages give the photographs space, while the extended accounts let you stay with a mission, a crew or a technical development for more than a caption.
Together, the two hardbacks tell the connected story of how the aircraft was created, how it went to war and how decades of operations changed both the jet and the people flying it.
Inside the missions
Extensive interviews with pilots and weapon systems officers take you through danger-close air support, special operations support, moving targets and missions fought against the limits of time and fuel. Follow Roberts' Ridge, the demands of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the fighting around Kobani through the people who were there.
Pages 94–95: detailed combat accounts, including the fighting in Iraq.
Technology in combat
Understand why AESA radar, Litening and Sniper targeting pods, data links and new precision weapons mattered. The book connects the engineering behind the equipment to cockpit workload, tactics and the crew's understanding of the battlefield.
Pages 44–45: technical development alongside full-colour photography.
Pages 124–125: the equipment and the people who took it into operations.
Two decades of changing wars
Trace the aircraft through Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and the campaign against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Aircrew accounts explore persistent deployments, encounters with Russian aircraft and the pressures that kept driving change.
Pages 140–141: night photography and the transition into Operation Inherent Resolve.
International variants and developments—including the F-15K, F-15SG, F-15SE, F-15QA and F-15EX—complete the wider story of the modern F-15 family.
Planned hardback specification
Limited print run of 1,000 copies.
Hardback coffee-table format, 242 × 300 mm.
Planned extent: 216 printed pages; final production specification may change.
Text and jacket planned on silk-coated 170 gsm paper; 150 gsm uncoated endpapers.
Full-colour illustration throughout; estimated book weight approximately 1.7 kg.
Read a sample chapter before pre-ordering
Choose your pre-order level
Select Silver, Gold or Platinum from the Pre-Order Level menu. The comparison image in the gallery explains the benefits included with each level.
Part 1 Platinum purchasers
Customers who pre-ordered Part 1 at Platinum level will receive a Part 2 discount code by email. If yours has not arrived, please contact Steve directly.
Publishing and delivery
Printing is dependent on reaching 300 pre-orders. The current shipping estimate is Q1 2027. This is a pre-order for a physical hardback.
