![]() |
a MTLB landing from the landing ship Severomorsk to Kotelny |
The Russian Northern
Fleet has been very active lately, in addition to the usual landing
drills close to the fleets home ports in the Kola peninsula, the
fleet has been roaming the Russian northern coast with a landing
squadron that carries a mix of marines and Arctic brigade specialists
from the Alakurtti military base.
This unit has now
made a landing drill at the remote island of Kotelny that sits
between the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea. The squadrons last
supply point, where the crews and troops were allowed to rest and
refit was in Dudinka. The distance from Dudinka to Kotelny is roughly
2000 km. This distance corresponds closely to the distance between
the fleets home base in Kola and Iceland. The geography and the size
of the islands are also very similar.
From Dudinka to the Kotelny |
It is very important
to test these kind of long distance naval operations in advance as
the troops and the vehicles on board, must remain combat worthy all
the way to the target. And the seas up north can be extremely
demanding.
Iceland is one of
the few nations in the world without an army. Iceland only has an
approximately 200 men strong coast guard and a 230 men strong force
for peacekeeping purposes. Due to the extremely strategic location of
the island nation, USA has been guaranteeing its freedom and Iceland
is a NATO member. Other NATO members and even some neutral countries
like Finland have lent aircraft's and personnel to help police the
Icelandic airspace.
![]() |
OPV Thor, the biggest vessel of the Iceland Coast Guard |
Without an effective
navy Iceland isn’t equipped to stop a Russian landing force and
without an army it has no change to repel an amphibious landing by
the Russian marines. A dug in Marine brigade with support from the
Arctic brigade and it’s modern anti-aircraft missile units a
Russian foothold in the island would be a real challenge to the NATO
forces available.
As we can see the
Cold War hot-spots haven’t all vanished. The GIUK gap from
Greenland via Iceland to United Kingdom is still included in the
Russian military training curriculum. NATO has also been sending more
and more vessels and aircraft to patrol the northern waters.
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A legit invasion attempt would be sunk before they made it to the beach. Sneaking SOF into Iceland is much more likely. I do, however, appreciate reading the article!
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