PETERSON SPACE FORCE BASE, Colorado – 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.

An earlier example of a Canada-United States bi-national command exercise. A Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) CP-140 long range patrol aircraft flies in formation with two U.S. Air Force F-16s and a RCAF CF-18 during North American Aerospace Defense Command’s Arctic air defense exercise, Amalgam Dart 21-02, March 22 and 23, 2021. The exercise will run from March 20-26 and range from the Beaufort Sea to Thule, Greenland and extend south down the Eastern Atlantic to the U.S. coast of Maine. Amalgam Dart 21-02 provides NORAD the opportunity to hone homeland defense skills as Canadian, U.S., and NATO forces operated together in the Arctic. A bi-national Canadian and American command, NORAD employs a network of space-based, aerial and ground-based sensors, air-to-air refueling tankers, and fighter aircraft, controlled by a sophisticated command and control network to deter, detect and defend against aerial threats that originate outside or within North American airspace. NATO E-3 Early Warning Aircraft, Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 fighter aircraft, CP-140 long-range patrol aircraft, CC-130 Search and Rescue and tactical airlift aircraft, CC-150T air refueler, and CH-149 Cormorant Search and Rescue helicopters; as well as U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter aircraft, KC-10 Extender refueler, KC-46 Pegasus, KC-135 Stratotanker, as well as C-130 and C-17 transport aircraft will participated in the exercise. (Photo credit:RCAF)