Book Review – "Target: Subic Bay"

Here’s a book review that gets my recommendation less for its story than for the niche subject, a Pegasus class hydrofoil, and the thought provoking usage of the vessel.[1]
 
Target: Subic Bay, by Mack Tanner, is a fictional story whose premise is a North Korean instigated overthrow of the Philippine government through the use of a few nuclear weapons and a rogue Philippine rebel acting as a front and an American admiral’s use of the Pegasus class vessel’s capabilities to attempt to thwart the coup.  Think about it … how would you go about thwarting a North Korean and nuclear weapons-backed coup with just a single Pegasus class hydrofoil? 
 

The storyline, to be honest, is solidly entertaining but nothing special.  What is special is the author’s descriptions of the many capabilities of the vessel (special ops landings, a UAV, the SLAM land attack version of the Harpoon, Harpoons, sonobuoys, the 76 mm gun, and the vessel’s extreme speed, etc.) and how a little unorthodox thinking can take advantage of those capabilities.  One’s thoughts can’t help but be drawn into the world of unconventional naval tactics and comparing those tactics against the unimaginative – and generally ineffective – actions of today’s risk averse Navy.
 
A very minor point is that the cover artwork does nothing for the book and is a disappointment.  One hopes it would have depicted a Pegasus vessel doing heroic things but such is not the case.  Of course, the cover artwork has no bearing on the value of the book, itself!
 
The Pegasus class hydrofoil was a fascinating and unique craft that stirs the imagination, even today.  The class was never given a chance to shine and that’s a shame.  This book offers a window into the possible uses of such a vessel and the book is worth the read for that, alone.
 
 
 
 
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[1]Tanner, Mack, Target: Subic Bay, Zebra Books/Kensington Publishing Co., 1992, ISBN: 0-8217-3936-0