Exercise Northern Strike

Exercise Northern Strike began in 2011 with 500 participants engaged^[6] to over 6000 soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines taking part Northern Strike 2019.^[7] By the mid-2020s, summer iterations of the exercise had grown to include up to 36 states and territories, with participation reaching approximately 7,500 to 8,000 service members.^[8] The three week exercise usually takes place in July or August each year.^[9]

Northern Strike's primary mission is (C.A.S.) close air support, with secondary missions including air interdiction, airlift and airdrop, combat search and rescue, air-to-air refueling and intelligence, and both air and ground surveillance and reconnaissance.^[9]

In January 2020, an additional arctic weather training exercise called Winter Strike was introduced. The first exercise lasted seven days, but the January session was expanded to ten days in subsequent years.^[10][11][12] The winter iterations focus on cold-weather survival skills, mobility in snow and ice, and the maintenance of weapon systems in extreme sub-zero temperatures, supporting the U.S. military's Arctic strategy.^[13]

Northern Strike has received Joint National Training Capability (JNTC) accreditation, with its training standards validated against joint doctrine and recognized as meeting requirements for multi-component mobilization.^[6]

A key feature of Northern Strike is its "Total Force" composition, which integrates Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard units across active, Guard, and Reserve components simultaneously. This integration provides National Guard and Reserve units — which comprise a substantial portion of the U.S. military's combat power — the opportunity to train alongside active-duty formations to the same readiness standards.^[14]

Alpena CRTC is the focal point of air operations during Northern Strike. Fixed wing aircraft that frequently participate include the A-10 Thunderbolt II, F-16C Fighting Falcon, C-130 Hercules, MQ-9 Reaper, KC-135 Stratotanker, E-8C Joint STARS, F-18E/F, and EA-18. Rotary wing participates, including the UH-60 Blackhawk, AH-64 Apache,^[15] AH-1W Super Cobra, CH-47 Chinook, and the UH-1Y Venom/Super Huey.^[16]

Live and inert ordnance is expended on the Grayling Air Gunnery Range during the exercise.^[17] Rockets, aircraft cannon fire, live guided/unguided bombs up to 500lb and 2000lb inert bombs in size can be used on the range.^[18]

For 2021, A-10 Thunderbolt IIs from the 354th Fighter Squadron and the Michigan Air National Guard's 127th Wing along with two C-146A Wolfhounds from the Air Force Special Operations Command participated in the exercise.^[19] The aircraft landed on state highway M-32 as part of Northern Strike 21, a large-scale training exercise, in Alpena, Michigan. This was the first ever use of a Highway strip on US soil.^[20]

Northern Strike has also been used to practice aeromedical evacuation procedures, including the En-Route Patient Staging System (ERPSS), which supports the movement of casualties from forward locations to higher-level medical facilities. Air units at Alpena CRTC train to establish mobile patient staging areas to support medical evacuation missions during the exercise.^[16]

The majority of the ground phase of Exercise Northern Strike takes place on the 147,000 acres of the Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center, the largest National Guard training center in the country.^[21] Camp Grayling is the largest open airspace for training east of the Mississippi River.^[22]

2016 saw the start of a major amphibious landing exercise being added to Northern Strike conducted by United States Marine Corps Forces on Lake Margrethe at Camp Grayling.^[23] In addition to inland water operations at Lake Margrethe, the exercise also utilizes the Lake Huron littoral environment near Alpena for coastal and maritime training scenarios, providing units with experience operating in Great Lakes shoreline conditions.^[24]

Northern Strike 2017 saw more than 30 Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACs) from around the globe take part. JTACs use specialized equipment to direct combat aircraft engaged in close air support and other offensive air operations from a forward observation position. Sometimes JTACs direct defensive air power for rescue evacuations. They are also called Forward Air Controllers (FACs) and usually work with Joint Fires Observers (JFOs) who assist with tracking and location identification.^[6]

On July 18, 2019, during Northern Strike 2019 saw the first time a remotely-piloted MQ-9 Reaper took off and landed in Michigan airspace. The MQ-9 "Reaper" from the 214th Attack Group, Arizona Air National Guard was operating from the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center.^[25] MQ-9 "Reapers" used in previous Northern Strike exercises had been flown from their home base.^[26]

Greater emphasis has been put on medical and aeromedical procedures in recent Northern Strike.^[16] This includes setting up a mobile patient staging area from the ground up, loading, unloading and in-flight care of patients.^[27] Combat Search and Rescue and the treatment of injured aircrew is regularly practiced during Northern Strike exercises.^[28] Patient resuscitation is a key skill practiced by personnel while attending Northern Strike.^[29]

Northern Strike also incorporates Cyberspace and Electromagnetic Activities (CEMA) training, where units practice operating in a contested electromagnetic environment. Camp Grayling's facilities are used to simulate electronic warfare scenarios, requiring personnel to develop skills in both disrupting adversary communications and maintaining mission effectiveness when their own systems are jammed.^[30]

Northern Strike also serves as a venue for integrating special operations forces (SOF) with conventional ground units. Special Forces elements have participated in the exercise to refine conventional force–special operations forces (CF-SOF) interdependence, combining unconventional tactics with traditional ground maneuver and close air support.^[31]

Troops from the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Estonia, Jordan,^[32] Canada,^[33] Denmark,^[34] Lithuania,^[35] The Netherlands,^[36] Germany, Hungary,^[37] Poland,^[38] Latvia,^{[citation needed]} and the Republic of China (Taiwan)^[39] have participated in previous Northern Strike exercises.^[40]

Latvia's participation is facilitated through the National Guard State Partnership Program (SPP), which pairs the Michigan National Guard with the Latvian National Armed Forces. This long-standing partnership has resulted in Latvian service members participating in multiple Northern Strike iterations, contributing to joint fire support coordination and electromagnetic spectrum operations alongside U.S. forces.^[41]

Exercise Northern Strike contributes significantly to the economy of northern Michigan. The exercise series injects approximately $38 million into the state's economy annually, through a combination of military pay, travel expenditures, and local spending in the region surrounding Camp Grayling and Alpena.^[42] Michigan's broader defense economy supports over 155,000 defense-related jobs across the state.^[43]