Michigan’s multi-domain readiness exercise reputation is earned, not claimed. At Camp Grayling and across the National All-Domain Warfighting Center, Northern Strike brings thousands of soldiers, airmen, sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen together to train as one joint force — and Munro Defense was on the ground to capture how that integration actually works.
The result is a living lab where commanders tailor scenarios, industry iterates in real time, and partners from at least ten allied nations push interoperability from slogan to standard.
What Makes Michigan Different
Start with scale. Northern Strike draws roughly 6–7,000 participants in the summer primary event, with a smaller winter iteration each January; this year’s count was about 7,500 including international partners. Consequently, the exercise can stack complex tasks across units and domains without losing realism.
Then consider geography and spectrum. Michigan offers about 200,000 acres of usable land plus expansive special-use airspace — and, critically, clean radio-frequency spectrum for electronic warfare and uncrewed systems work. For future conflicts, that spectrum access is not a luxury; it is the test range.
Finally, add five domains in one place. Leaders train on land, air, maritime, space, and the electromagnetic/cyber realm at once, validating tactics that must survive jamming, sensing, and counter-UAS threats, not just maneuver.
Joint Command and Control First
Northern Strike’s core outcome is joint C2 proficiency. With roughly a hundred units converging, commanders practice planning and execution across services and components, then refine those flows under live, contested conditions. In practical terms, that means closing seams between ground maneuver, close air support, artillery, and ISR while coping with EW friction the entire time.
This is not a static script. Planners begin ~400 days before execution, align unit objectives, and build a common scenario; by the final planning conference, integration threads are already in motion.
Allies by Design, Not by Chance
Michigan leverages the National Guard’s State Partnership Program to bring allied formations from multiple combatant commands into the same training loop. The payoffs are concrete: shared comms procedures, compatible tow points, and logistics interfaces solved in training rather than in conflict. Accordingly, those details move from after-action “discoveries” to pre-planned standards.
This year included about ten partner nations and roughly 900–1,000 allied personnel. Interoperability here is an outcome measured in tasks closed and missions completed, not brochures handed out.
Industry Inside the Exercise
Northern Strike integrates industry where it matters: inside units’ training plans. Midway through the planning cycle, companies match capabilities to unit objectives; on the ground, soldiers and engineers iterate together. Software updates and TTP changes occur same-day when needed. Therefore, feedback loops that normally take quarters compress to hours. This year featured 68 companies and about 270 embedded employees.
Leaders want soldiers to “test and break things” here, not downrange. That culture accelerates capability maturation and gives industry unfiltered user truth. Michigan’s industrial base — the historic Arsenal of Democracy — amplifies access and speed.
Drones, EW, and the Cat-and-Mouse
The character of war is shifting fast under the pressure of uncrewed systems and electronic warfare. Northern Strike treats UAVs and counter-UAS as moving targets: integrate today’s tools, measure effects, and expect six-month evolution. The exercise emphasizes defensive counter-UAS measures and planning realism over fixating on any single platform.
Observers study current conflicts to extract lessons on drones, EW saturation, and rapid adaptation — then turn those insights into live, joint training problems across Michigan’s airspace and ranges. In effect, units rehearse the cadence of innovation and counter-innovation that defines modern battle.
Real-World Integration, Real-World Risk
Because Northern Strike operates across public lands, lakes, and private sites, the team coordinates with local agencies for safety and incident response. Firefighting forces from multiple counties rehearse aircraft fires and wildland contingencies; rotary-wing crews stage water bucket ops when conditions demand. Training value increases; so does community resilience.
Live-fire aviation, artillery, and maritime tasks run in parallel with space and cyber play. Units practice under stress while deconflicting airspace, spectrum, and terrain — the same constraints they will face in real operations.
Why It Matters to Engineers and Investors
For defense suppliers, Northern Strike is a proving ground. It compresses the loop from prototype to soldier-verified design. You see where UI friction stalls adoption, which mounts survive recoil, how antennas fail in clutter, and which power profiles hold up under EW load. Then you adjust the design and re-run the rep the same day — a rare gift in acquisition.
For automotive and aerospace engineers, the logic will feel familiar. This is lean design applied to warfighting systems: shorten feedback, remove waste, validate in context, and scale what works. As Munro often stresses, the fastest path to cost and performance gains is hands-on teardown, redesign, and retest. Northern Strike applies that rhythm to TTPs and tech alike.
Northern Strike Takeaways
- Design for contested spectrum. Assume jamming, spoofing, and clutter; instrument RF performance and failover paths in the field.
- Build modular updates. Expect same-day software iterations with operators in the loop.
- Prioritize counter-UAS defense effects over platform features. Train the plan, not the gadget.
- Prove interoperability with allies now. Solve the “simple” interface problems before deployment.
Explore More With Munro
At Munro & Associates, we specialize in detailed EV teardown analysis, cost benchmarking, and lean design consulting. Subscribe to Munro Live and watch Munro Defense’s Northern Strike coverage to see how Michigan’s Michigan multi-domain readiness exercise turns joint training into measurable readiness. Then map those lessons to your product roadmap: shorten the build-measure-learn cycle, harden for EW reality, and design for allied interoperability.