ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the strategic framework created by the Soviet forces build-up in the north, about the Soviet forces and doctrines, Gorshkov's The Sea Power of the State and Sokolovskiy's Soviet Military Strategy were important at the time. Regarding defence policy, military strategy, and technology, Khrushchev pressed for a greater concentration on nuclear forces at the expense of conventional forces. The chapter discusses the status of British forces, and especially the contribution they had in relation to the raising Soviet naval threat and the changing North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) strategies. The British Naval War Manual of 1957/61 stated clearly that the Soviet surface forces did not constitute a decisive threat to British and NATO forces. The capabilities and the balance of the Soviet Navy and its long-range air force for influence in the Norwegian Sea, and for possible strikes on NATO's Northern Flank, were also undisputed.
