Book excerpt: In the age of modern warfare the changing landscape of the 21st century battlefield has demanded a transformation within the US Marine Corps Special Operations. Adapting to a huge range of combat environments, an enormous array of specialist uniforms, protective armour and battlefield electronic devices have been developed to facilitate missions in the most extreme conditions. A special forces operator may now have available to him a dozen distinct types of body armour and two dozen different weapons; never before in American military history has so much been given to so few. Authored by J. Kenneth Eward, professor at the American Military University, and illustrated throughout with photographs and meticulous colour plates, this volume offers the first detailed, authoritative study of the characteristics, and performance in the field, of the most modern combat gear and weapons provided for USMC specialist operators to date.