ABSTRACT
Soviet military strategy in Northern Waters can on the whole be said to consist of two main related parts. First are those primary Soviet strategic military interests which make the region of importance to the USSR, and the associated strategic forces which are allocated to the region to achieve these primary objectives. These forces have an extra-regional orientation and on the whole only affect the regional military situation indirectly, by raising or lowering the general strategic interest of the superpowers in the area. Secondly, however, these strategic interests create a series of secondary regional theatre-level military support requirements. These consist of those operations, and their associated forces, which are necessary to protect the strategic forces and safeguard their operational viability in wartime. The developments on the third level have been the least destabilising and have involved relatively the smallest Soviet force increases in the NW TVD.
