Nato

Greenland: How hard would it be to take the world's largest island militarily?

Greenland: How hard is it to annex militarily?

Wanting to take Greenland by force and being able to are two very different things.

While international diplomacy still trumps any calls for a military land grab, it is important to say that any hypothetical operation like this would present many challenges. 

One of the problems is resupplying ground forces across this amount of ground – 2.17 million square kilometres – means navigating huge distances. 

Besides the resupplying issues, an overreliance on air supply is vulnerable to harsh weather conditions. 

An attacking force could take key cities and military installations in the north and south, then a ring road that goes around most of Greenland. 

For Russia to do that, it would have to get through layers of Nato defence in and around the Bear Gap and the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap. 

In our video, BFBS Forces News looks at what it would take to annex the semi-autonomous island militarily and the challenges associated with it. 

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