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News | April 10, 2023

NORAD and U.S. Northern Command will conduct exercise VIGILANT SHIELD 23

The North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command will conduct its annual homeland defense exercise, VIGILANT SHIELD 23, Apr. 11-19, 2023.  

Exercise VIGILANT SHIELD is a bi-national exercise between the United States and Canada designed to assess and enhance the readiness of NORAD and USNORTHCOM, its components and mission partners to defend North America from attack.

Personnel from across the United States and Canada will participate, including the commands' Headquarters, the Alaskan, Canadian and Continental NORAD Regions, USNORTHCOM components (U.S. Army North, U.S. Air Force North, U.S. Navy North, U.S. Marine Forces North, and Special Operations Command North), and other subordinate units and mission partners.  

 

VIGILANT SHIELD 23 provides NORAD and USNORTHCOM opportunities to examine and refine strategies, evaluate processes and procedures, and demonstrate the ability to address threats in various environments and domains. It is primarily a Command Post Exercise using simulated forces and involves the commander, the staff, and communications within and between headquarters. While the overall exercise scenario is classified, it is designed to assess and enhance NORAD and USNORTHCOM's ability to defend North America across all domains, which include air, land, maritime, space and cyber. 

NORAD is a bi-national command formed by a partnership between Canada and the United States. NORAD provides aerospace warning, aerospace control and maritime warning for North America. USNORTHCOM conducts homeland defense, civil support and security cooperation to defend and secure the U.S. and its interests. The two commands have complementary missions and are co-located together on Peterson SFB, Colorado.

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NOTE TO EDITORS: For further information, please contact NORAD and U.S. Northern Command Public Affairs at (719) 554-6889 or visit our websites at www.norad.mil / www.northcom.mil.