RSR (the book) remains a great war book; however, by 2000, the technology is quite dated. The most obvious case of this is in the description of the US Air Force's stealth bombers -- instead of the nearly-flat triangular shape that was actually selected some time after the book was published, Clancy instead used one of the other candidate designs, one with the frontal cross-section appearance of a Frisbee. (In the book, the planes were actually nicknamed "Frisbees".)

One other key note is that, although he was not credited on the book cover, Larry Bond contributed heavily to the book. In Clancy's notes at the beginning of the book, he stated that he felt Bond deserved co-author credit.