MADISON, Wis. – About 20 National Guard units participated in the Air National Guard’s Sentry North 2026, a two-week exercise that included counter-air operations against peer adversaries designed to hone their tactical readiness and combat lethality.
Sentry North, which ended June 11 and was held at Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center in Camp Douglas, is a joint, total-force exercise led by the National Guard Bureau Readiness Center and hosted by the Air National Guard Combat Readiness Training Centers at Volk Field and Alpena, Michigan.
“Volk Field is far more than a premier training installation; it is the ultimate proving ground where air dominance is forged and our national security is operationalized,” said Col. Timothy Guy, commander of Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center. “Our unique airspace and world-class facilities offer an unparalleled environment where we don't just practice for the next fight; we engineer the victory.”
This year’s iteration of Sentry North consisted of counter-air operations against peer adversaries, employing a simulated integrated air defense system that included modern, high-end threats. It focused on the joint integration of multi-domain capabilities to disrupt, degrade or destroy adversary capabilities that impede U.S. air superiority and the ability to conduct follow-on counter-land operations and logistics support.
More than 25 aircraft and more than 1,600 service members participated in the exercise.
“We've been able to incorporate a lot of experiences and combat lessons learned recently in [the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility] and have incorporated those into the exercise to make it more relevant to what is actually happening in the world,” said Lt. Col. Michael Cady, lead planner and exercise director for Sentry North 2026. “We're very agile in adapting our scenarios to what members are experiencing downrange right now and what we expect to experience in any kind of near-term conflict.”
Cady cited an example in which this year’s exercise incorporated the rapid aerial transport and relocation of U.S. Army vehicle-mounted rocket systems to and from simulated austere locations.
“That’s something I don’t think I’ve ever seen in my career as a fighter pilot,” he said.
Exercises like Sentry North 2026 are directly tied to mission readiness because they provide experiences that units and military personnel may not encounter daily but would be expected to perform in real-world situations.
“I definitely make sure it is hard here because it's not going to get easier in the real world,” Cady said. “Participants, a lot of times, are surprised at how difficult it is to execute these missions in the first several iterations of training. Then they learn, and they get better, and by the end, they're doing it pretty well, and they're as prepared as they're possibly going to be to execute it in the real world.”
Cady additionally recognized the role joint exercises like Sentry North have played in the National Guard's transition from a strategic to an operational reserve.
“I think the old idea was that the Guard would just supplement the active duty and come in for relief, and we're seeing now over the last year or so that the Guard is leading the fight,” Cady said. “So, we have to prepare our Guardsmen to be at that performance level to survive and win on day one of the war, not just coming in at day 30 or day 60.”
Formerly known as Northern Lightning, which began in 2003, the exercise was renamed to align the training event under a unified, nationwide National Guard Bureau exercise framework. The National Guard Bureau reorganized its premier regional readiness exercises under a single brand to establish standardized, highly integrated exercises across the United States, preparing total-force Airmen for future worldwide deployments.
“It is vital to recognize that the operations conducted here are not mere exercises,” Guy said. “They are a critical mechanism of our national defense, forging the lethal, resilient and adaptable force required to secure our nation and support our allies in an era of strategic competition.”