New Jersey National Guard Participate in Large-Scale Cyber Exercise

TRENTON, NJ. — New Jersey National Guard soldiers have returned home after participating in Cyber Yankee 2025, a premier two-week cyber defense exercise at the Edward Cross Training Complex, NH. This year’s event was designed to rigorously test and enhance the cyber defense capabilities of its over 330 participants through a realistic and complex scenario. The exercise simulated a large-scale, coordinated cyberattack targeting critical infrastructure, such as power grids and water utilities, across the New England region.

Participants operated within the Department of Defense’s Persistent Cyber Training Environment, a secure, virtual platform that allowed for sophisticated and dynamic threat simulations. The exercise was structured in two phases: the first week focused on specialized technical training tailored to each participant’s role, ensuring all teams were equipped with the latest cyber defense techniques and tools. In the second week, multinational and joint “Blue Teams” were tasked with defending simulated infrastructure networks against a “Red Team” of adversaries emulating real-world cyber threat actors.

Throughout the exercise, participants interacted with role-players acting as corporate CIOs and IT staff, adding layers of realism and complexity to the scenario. The overarching goal was to foster collaboration, improve incident response procedures, and strengthen the collective ability to protect vital infrastructure from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.

Col. Barry Groton, Unified Coordination Group lead for Cyber Yankee, stated that the “National Guard [is] looking at the potential homeland defense mission in support of defense critical infrastructure, which the working definition of that is, critical infrastructure that supports military installations and military ability to project power and to have habitual relationships — and specificity with those particular nuances of the different utilities because it’s not generic,”.

Altogether, Cyber Yankee has a diverse coalition of participants, including Army and Air National Guard cyber units from all six New England states—Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Including participation from the U.S. Marines, U.S. Air Force Reserve, and for the first time the U.S. Space Force. Also, Federal agencies such as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Department of Energy joined with more than ten private utility and technology companies contributing their expertise. The exercise also welcomed international partners from Albania, Bahamas, El Salvador, Kenya, Paraguay, and Uruguay as part of the Department of Defense’s State Partnership Program.

The exercise reinforced the importance of integrated, adaptable defense and the critical role the National Guard plays in protecting the nation’s digital infrastructure.