This year’s edition was conducted within a simulation of the current geopolitical context, mirroring emerging operational challenges that NATO and its partners may face in a conflict that originates in, or encompasses, the cyber domain.
Cyber Coalition is a predominantly collaborative cyber defence exercise. Participating military and civilian teams work together to address challenges, such as countering the sabotage of Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), or recovering from cyberattacks on space-based systems, all in close cooperation with one another, from the technical, up to strategic levels.
Each year NCIA provides essential technical, operational, and planning support to the exercise. The NCI Academy in Oerias, contributed to the development and delivery of important technical foundations. Meanwhile, the NCIA’s NATO Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) contributed with the design of key exercise elements, ensured the resilience and availability of the underlying infrastructure, and enabled coordination and information-sharing among participating nations and organisations. NCSC cyber defenders deployed to Tallinn to participate as part of the Training Audience.
“The NCIA exercise team supports many exercises, but Cyber Coalition is unique in providing training to a quickly changing environment, with an extremely wide variety of stakeholders ranging from NATO bodies to Allies” explained Tom Koolen, the C2 Centre's Collective Training and eXercise (CTX) branch Coherence Manager. “There is high sense of urgency within the community for continuous improvement of the Alliance’s Cyberspace resilience. The exercise is built in a very dynamic way with multiple contributions by the community for the community.”
This year’s edition also includes numerous specialist challenges: including testing the integration of Cyber capabilities within a Multi-Domain operational context, and a track for legal specialists to navigate the implications posed by simulated scenarios. NCIA experts supported training activities and helped refine the scenarios and technical challenges used throughout the exercise.
As NATO's technology and cyber hub, NCIA is at the forefront of protecting and renewing NATO digital infrastructure, sharpening the Alliance’s cyber defence skills and facilitating operations in the domain. The ambitious planning, development, and execution of this year’s Cyber Coalition 2025 has been a marker of NCIA’s unyielding commitment to keeping the Alliance resilient and responsive in the domain.