"The Past and Future of Land Warfare in the High North" Topic

"Present-day military strategists tend to cast the Arctic region as a theater in which the naval and air domains will dominate operations.[1] This is not unreasonable. The Arctic's most obvious geographic feature is its ocean, and the region's emerging significance is largely due to the fact that for the first time in recorded history it will be open to shipping on a large scale. Thus, most national security discourse concerned with the High North centers around icebreakers, shipping lanes, and so on.[2] However, combat in Arctic conditions offers little new stimulus to naval and airpower practitioners because of the relative global uniformity of their domains.[3] The changing Arctic will have far greater impacts on ground combat by restricting the mobility of units across already-difficult terrain and by exacerbating the logistical and life support needs of these formations.

The Arctic Ocean is surrounded, in roughly equal proportion, by Russian and NATO territory. As such, there is significant value in studying the largest modern land operation to take place entirely above the Arctic Circle: the Red Army's Petsamo-Kirkenes offensive of 7-30 October 1944. Though the Soviets ultimately achieved their territorial objectives in this operation, the German forces escaped largely intact, withdrawing westward in good order to occupy the intimidating Lyngen Line in northern Norway.[4] The Soviet operation failed to catch and destroy the withdrawing German forces in large part due to the difficulty of the operating environment. The terrain and weather in the Arctic presented the Soviets with major interlinked difficulties in sustainment, movement and maneuver, and fires that combined to slow their offensive. Many of these conditions remain relevant in the 21st century and climate change will almost certainly exacerbate these difficulties…"

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Amicalement
Armand

The military value of the Kola peninsula for Russia can hardly be exaggerated.
As such it is an inviting target for a land offensive.
But local circumstances restrict mechanized warfare to a small deep winter window.
And while helicopters can nowadays negate the lack of a decent road system to some extend, they can't do this in the face of an enemy loaded with MPADS, like the Russian army.
The Russian's for their part would be interested in acquiring the Northern Norwegian ports, but these are located in mountainous terrain, adding even more difficulty for mechanized warfare.
So, for wargaming purposes, I think this restricts land combat to skirmish sized games representing commando raids etc.
Just my 2 cents worth…

Thanks!

Amicalement
Armand