The Air Forces Cyber group is representing the United States in NATO’s flagship Cyber Coalition this week in Tallinn, Estonia.
Cyber Coalition 2025 brings together representatives from 29 NATO Allies, their partner countries, and the EU, as well as collaborators from academia and the industry to exercise and test the integration of cyberspace into Allied operations and missions. Now for the seventh year, 16th Air Force will participate as the Allied cyber Air Component Command. Operating across four time zones, the command will continue its swap initiative, integrating U.S. cyber operators with Romanian and Georgian teams to enhance interoperability as well as to strengthen cyber defense and resilience in cyberspace.
“Exercises strengthen our competitive edge, increase interoperability and readiness so we can better defend the homeland,” U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas Hensley, 16th Air Force commander, said. “What our cyber warriors do here during Cyber Coalition further underscores our network of Allies and partners is an asymmetric advantage that our adversaries can never hope to match.”
This year’s Cyber Coalition focuses on NATO, Allied nations and partners’ ability to deter, defend against, and counter cyberspace threats. The exercise will test cyber operations, mechanisms for information-sharing and the integration of cyberspace into multi-domain operations. The exercise pushed teams through complex, realistic scenarios – including attacks against critical infrastructure, cloud services, government networks, military operations and cyberattacks on space-based systems among others, that will require a coordinated response.
“Cyber Coalition allows us to train side-by-side with our NATO Allies and partners to detect, deter, and defeat threats before they reach our homelands,” said Candace Sanchez, 16th Air Force lead exercise planner. “When we collaborate, share, and defend forward together, we secure our collective future.”