"Cold War Controversy: Could Russia Have Really Invaded" Topic

…Iceland?

"Tom Clancy's 1986 novel Red Storm Rising depicts a conventional war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. It's one of Clancy's best books and, interesting for a story about a Third World War, doesn't involve a nuclear apocalypse.

It does describe a ground war in Germany, naval and air battles in the North Atlantic and — central to the plot — an invasion of Iceland by a regiment of Soviet troops. Clancy, who died in 2013, was known for his realism and extreme attention to technical detail…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Taking the airports would be the only feasible way to take the Island. Send troops by helicopter (maybe launched from a cargo ship) or land a few planes directly onto the airport and then keep air and AA assets to prevent NATO planes from joining the fun. Once you have troops holding the airport you ferry as many troops as possible and try to get transports with the AA and other assets to keep out NATO forces.

Yes, and IMO it would have been very risky and have a low chance of success.

Interesting points….

Amicalement
Armand

I suspect they could, since they succeeded in Afghanistan, AND took over an airport in the Balkans, thwarting NATO units there as I seem to recall, a couple of decades ago.

Air drops from cargo planes would work. They even had armor that could be air-transported/dropped too, e.g. their ASU-85 "tanks", and BMD IFVs.

Ship and sub-borne troops could be landed as well, in a combined effort. The Argentinians used sub-launched special forces to lead the way on their landings in the Falklands, against the British, and LSTs to carry their Amtracs, which followed shortly thereafter. If they can do that, you can bet the Soviets could – they practiced helo and ship-borne landings all the time, and had a large number of vessels, hovercraft, helos, and troops dedicated to that mission.

That's the way they planned on taking Denmark in WWIII.

Holding it would be the real challenge.