[2] Northern Strike is one of the United States Department of Defense's largest annual joint, reserve component readiness exercise.

Fixed wing aircraft that frequently participate include the A-10 Thunderbolt II, F-16C Fighting Falcon, C-130 Hercules, MQ-9 Reaper, KC-135 Stratotanker, E-8C Joint STARS, F-18E/F, and EA-18.

[17] The majority of the ground phase of Exercise Northern Strike takes place on the 147,000 acres of the Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center.

[19] 2016 saw the start of a major amphibious landing exercise being added to Northern Strike conducted by United States Marine Corps Forces on Lake Margrethe at Camp Grayling.

They are also called Forward Air Controllers (FACs) and usually work with Joint Fires Observers (JFOs) who assist with tracking and location identification.

The MQ-9 "Reaper" from the 214th Attack Group, Arizona Air National Guard was operating from the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center.

[27] Troops from the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Estonia, Jordan,[28] Canada,[29] Denmark,[30] Lithuania,[31] The Netherlands,[32] Germany, Hungary,[33] Poland[34] ,Latvia and the Republic of China (Taiwan) have participated in previous Northern Strike exercises.