Quote:
Originally Posted by Mohoender
I haven't seen your post but here is the listing of landing crafts of Sweden by 2002:
- 3 Grim class Landing Craft (dating back to 1960's, 5 were still seeing service by 1990) being 327t and 36m in length. Probably in the LCU class but I haven't been able to find one illustration. They are potentially the only ships capable of landing tanks and heavy equipments.
- 63 Landing Crafts (Hull N°:207, 208, 211-213, 215, 217, 220-223, 225, 228, 230-239, 241, 243-245, 247-249, 252, 253, 256, 258-265, 267-269, 273, 274, 281-283, 603, 604, 606-612, 652-658). 40 to 50t and 21m in length. Probaly in the LCM class.
- Potentially 200+ (may be 300) Stridsbat-90 capable of 40knts and capable of carrying 20 troops. (really usefull for raiding parties)
- Potentially a dozen hovercrafts Typ ABS M10 (6 had entered service between 1995-1997)
- To this, you can add a fairly large number of Civilian Merchant Ferry that can be converted for naval support. I counted no less than 40 such ships for Sweden alone.
Of course, and I think we all agree, this is not enough to conduct any large offensive landing. However, it is more than enough to ensure regular supplies and to bring troops in a fairly unhostile environment (especially in a Sea which is fully under Swedish control).
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Looking over a copy of Combat Fleets of the World, most of the Swedish landing craft are short-range boats, basically intended for ship-to-shore or island-to-island movement. The stumbling block to any major amphibious movement falls onto how many of the medium-to-large ships can be used. This then falls onto the shoulders of just how many ships, merchant or otherwise, that would be afloat and usable in the T2K world.
If the Soviets go Sweden, then these simple become additional targets to fire SS-N-19 missiles at. If Sweden gets near missed, the "oops, your ship was in a warzone and got tagged by accident" sort of thing, then it becomes more likely that these ships survive.
There is another way of looking at as well...the neutrality of Switzerland and Sweden has actually been of use to the Soviet Union, both from a political, a military and a intelligence viewpoint. Even during the worse days of WWII, for example, Soviet diplomatic efforts channeled through Switzerland were deleivered to the Nazis...and GRU intelligence gathering found being able to funnel through a neutral nation eased a lot of problems in the fast delivery of intell. During the Vietnam War, a political think tank based in Sweden was very useful to North Vietnam in many ways...one of this groups "findings" was that cluster and napalm bombs were intended as anti-civilian muntions and thus the US was guilty of genocide against the Vietnamese people.
So looking at the neutral nations from this viewpoint, how is it to the advantage of the Soviet Union to invade or nuke.
Just a point to consider.