In Iceland's defence
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Iceland is an island of great beauty and even greater strategic importance. Its position in the Greenland Iceland UK Gap, the gateway between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, makes it crucial to Nato operations in the High North.
But Iceland is one of the few nations in the world with no military of its own. A country of approximately 400,000 people, its security relies on the umbrella of protection it derives from being a founding member of NATO, a bilateral agreement with the United States signed in 1951 and a highly skilled coast guard and police force. In a climate of fracturing political alliances, is entrusting national defence so heavily on the guarantees of allies a sustainable strategy? Sandra Kanthal travelled to Reykjavik to find out.
This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service, this week on assignment in Iceland. |
| 0:12.9 | How does this work? |
| 0:14.7 | You should take this first? |
| 0:17.6 | On a windy afternoon in mid-March, I got invited to take a trip I hadn't planned for. |
| 0:23.6 | I was dropped in, ready to go. |
| 0:26.6 | With an Icelandic Coast Guard helicopter search and rescue team. |
| 0:32.6 | I was meant to see one of the Coast Guard's ships in Reykjavik Harbor, |
| 0:36.6 | but it got diverted to another part of the island due to avalanche warnings. |
| 0:42.1 | So instead, they asked if I would like to join this five-man crew on a training flight. |
| 0:47.9 | I'm kidding up with a Coast Guard jacket, which they led me, |
| 0:51.2 | so I was completely unprepared for the cold. |
| 0:54.8 | It seemed rude to say no. |
| 0:58.8 | What we're looking at here is a communications console and also a navigational one. |
| 1:04.7 | So here you can see a map and you can see where the helicopter is in relation to the ground |
| 1:09.8 | and terrain. Also where you can see ships as helicopter is in relation to the ground and terrain, also where you can |
| 1:11.8 | see ships as well, other aircraft traffic. |
| 1:16.2 | What's your name? |
| 1:17.4 | Reynes. |
| 1:18.4 | Yeah, I'm a rescue swimmer in training. |
| 1:23.9 | Fishing and tourism are among Iceland's biggest industries, but nature in the North Atlantic is frequently brutal. |
| 1:31.3 | So this service of approximately 300 people can be a vital lifeline. |
... |
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