Personnel from the 3rd Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment along with over 6,300 participants from 32 US states and territories, and four other international partners have converged on Michigan’s National All-Domain Warfighting Center (NADWC) for training focused on expeditionary skills, command and control, sustainment and joint integrated fires.
This year’s summer iteration of the annual exercise will incorporate training scenarios involving homeland security and defence against unmanned aerial systems. Additionally, maritime training scenarios will focus on protecting high-value assets, as well as fixing, tracking and engaging targets within littoral and open water environments. The Joint Personnel Recovery Agency will integrate with training units to test newly developed combat search, rescue and recovery systems during the exercise.
The Michigan National Guard (MING) began hosting the Exercise in 2012 and it has since grown into a joint, multi-national exercise program. The exercise provides participating units a chance to conduct robust and relevant scenario-based, full-spectrum readiness training and complete mission-essential tasks. NS is a tailorable, scalable and cost-effective readiness producer, providing a venue for the units to maximize training proficiencies and requirements.
The exercise is Army National Guard sponsored and a Joint National Training Capability (JNTC) accredited exercise providing readiness-building opportunities for all services.
“Exercise Northern Strike is unique, not only because of the integration of defense innovators and academia, but because the exercise reflects the changes service members are seeing on the modern battlefield,” said Col. Todd Fitzpatrick, land exercise director. “For instance, our Air Defense scenario was created from lessons learned from recent drone attacks in the Middle East.”
