Soviet Military Objectives in the Artic Theater and How They Might be Attained

摘要

This Research Memorandum discusses the USSR's wartime objectives in the Arctic Theater of Military Action (TVD), and lays out a plausible Soviet strategic approach to the problem of attaining them during a war fought entirely with conventional weapons. The memorandum argues that the Soviets believe it necessary to gain control of the entire Arctic TVD--an area substantially larger in their definition than that commonly designated in the West, reaching as far south as the Greenland-Iceland-Norway Gap, the Canadian Arctic passages, and the Bering Strait. These choke points and adjacent littorals such as Norway--all of Norway, not just its northern end-will play a key role in determining the outcome of the struggle for mastery of the theater, and the memorandum argues that the Soviets will attempt their seizure and blockade as the war opens. Keywords: military doctrine; strategic analysis.