Maryland Air National Guardsmen support world’s largest NATO cyber exercise in Estonia
Maryland Air National Guardsmen of the 175th Cyberspace Operations Group and members of the Virginia Air National Guard pose for a group photo during exercise Locked Shields 2025, Tallinn, Estonia, May 6, 2025. 11 Maryland Air National Guardsmen and two members of the Virginia Air National Guard were in attendance for the wide-scale exercise that included 41 countries and hosted over 4000 people in-person and remote. (Courtesy Photo)
Story by Airmen 1st Class Sarah Hoover
TALLINN, Estonia—The Maryland Air National Guard had 11 Airmen from the 175th Cyberspace Operations Group participate in Locked Shields 2025, the world’s largest defensive cybersecurity exercise designed to allow cyber experts to enhance their skills in defending critical infrastructure from potential cyberattacks, from April 27 to May 10, 2025.
The 15th annual exercise, hosted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence in the Estonian capital, brought together 41 nations and included over 4000 people in person and remotely. Maryland sent cyber operators from the 175th Cyberspace Operations Squadron, the 276th Cyberspace Operations Squadron, and the 275th Operations Support Squadron.
Members of the Maryland Air National Guard and Virginia National Guard, support exercise Locked Shields 2025, in collaboration with Montenegro, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Estonia, in Tallinn, Estonia, May 7, 2025. Participants expanded their knowledge through multinational teamwork that encouraged joint, worldwide collaboration both in-person and remote. (Courtesy Photo)
“This exercise fostered interaction between our Airmen and military members from other nations, to build a shared understanding of the global threat landscape,” said Maryland Air National Guard Lt. Col. Bob DeLuca, flight commander of the 175th Cyberspace Operations Squadron. “Through these discussions, we identified commonalities and distinctions in how different countries perceive these threats, compared to the U.S. perspective.”
The exercise involved familiarizing the cyber range during the first week to prepare and learn what infrastructure would be involved in the main portion of the exercise.
“This year, our team had to defend over 8,000 systems from attacks from the Red Team. The types of infrastructure in this year’s range included simulated military infrastructure, telecom networks, supervisory control and data acquisition-based systems, industrial control systems, governmental networks, fifth-generation cellular networks, and a water treatment facility. Every year, the range gets more complex and challenging for blue teams to manage,” said DeLuca. “During the exercise, teams were scored on a comprehensive system, including the team’s success in preventing the attacks, system availability, incident reporting, and collaboration, as well as parallel legal, strategy and strategic communication tracks.”
Maryland Air National Guardsmen augmented the Estonian, Lithuanian, and Montenegrin blue teams, which included over 450 people. Members collaborated with participants from all over the world virtually, including from the Virginia National Guard, the Maine National Guard, Montenegro, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Estonia. Overall, the exercise consisted of 17 blue teams and one offensive red team.
Maryland Air National Guardsmen of the 175th Cyberspace Operations Group participate in exercise Locked Shields 2025, in Tallinn, Estonia, May 7, 2025. Maryland Air National Guardsmen augmented the Estonian, Lithuanian and Montenegrin blue teams, which included over 450 people. (Courtesy Photo)
“Our successful collaboration with the Estonian team highlights the strength of our 30-year State Partnership Program relationship,” said DeLuca. “Their assistance has been invaluable as we work collaboratively to solve joint problems. Working directly with our Estonian partners is incredibly valuable. It helps us gain a deeper understanding of their approach to cyber defensive missions.”
Since 1993, the Maryland National Guard has partnered with Estonia via the National Guard Bureau’s State Partnership Program. The exercise provided opportunities for senior leadership and junior enlisted Airmen to foster and make connections through this long-standing relationship.
“To expand our group’s capabilities and facilitate knowledge exchange, I ensure a mix of experienced and new Airmen participate in these events,” said DeLuca. “Looking ahead, we aim to enhance the collaboration between the Maryland and Virginia Guard. This preparation is crucial as we strive to be as capable a partner with the Estonian and Finnish teams for Locked Shields 2026.”
Two members of the Virginia Air National Guard attended this year to observe the exercise in preparation for their participation next year. The Maryland Air National Guard hopes to incorporate joint training with the Virginia Air National Guard, which is anticipated to engage in next year’s exercise with its state partner, Finland.
“We all were working together to figure out how to attack the problem at hand, and we definitely benefited from working with our Estonian coordinators,” said Maryland Air National Guard Senior Airman Seth Atangcho, systems operations specialist for the 175th Cyber Operations Squadron and first-time attendee of Locked Shields 2025. “In one situation, the Estonians assisted us with developing a script to create alerts and keep track of the tickets we were being assigned. Then a member of our leadership was able to build on it and create a more robust program to organize relevant information among the alerts that we received.”
Navigating new territory and systems, participants expanded their knowledge through multinational teamwork that encouraged joint, worldwide collaboration.
“Our Guardsmen did an excellent job, quickly integrating and excelling in their assigned areas,” said DeLuca. “They were crucial to their teams’ success.”