Facing mounting cyberthreats globally, soldiers, their fellow service members and cyber defense experts came together to train and test their skills during Cyber Shield 2025.

“There’s constantly adversaries attempting to go after our networks, our partners’ networks,” Brig. Gen. Russell McGuire, exercise director and assistant adjutant general of North Carolina, said during a June 10 media roundtable.

 “We’re … trying to bring people from across the globe together to determine best practices, test and train and learn from each other to make sure we're better prepared to respond to future incidents,” he said.

Over 900 soldiers, airmen, sailors, guardians and civilian experts participated in the annual cyber defense exercise between May 30 and June 13. Over 28 states and territories were represented, and 15 state partner nations also attended, according to the Army.

First conducted in 2013, Cyber Shield is the longest running and largest unclassified cyber defense exercise in DoD.

Cooperation between the U.S. military and global partners establishes trust, enabling them to better engage adversaries when new threats emerge, said Lt. Col. Seth Barun, the exercise officer-in-charge and a member of the North Carolina Army National Guard.

“We can’t do it alone,” he said. “There's too many malicious actors out there, so Cyber Shield helps us work across the services, … with our foreign partners to help build a collective defense and concentrate on building those international partnerships. So, if something does have an effect across borders, we know the right people to call.”

Though experts could not delve into specifics, the exercise attempts to create realistic scenarios so that attendees can train as they fight, McGuire said. “AI has been a part of the exercise for years,” he said, referring to artificial intelligence. “We have simulators to literally create messages to make the [cyber] range portion realistic. … We also always look for ways to add AI to the exercise so the actual cyberwarriors are better prepared to face what they will actually see in a real-world situation.”

As cyberthreats and capabilities evolve, soldiers need to prepare for the unexpected, McGuire said. “Technology is constantly changing, and … you have to be that critical thinker in thinking about what's next,” he said. “What have I not thought of? What have I not prepared for? And doing that that's going to better prepare you [for] whenever those new attack vectors come in.”