Photo By Staff Sgt. Thomas Lamb | Service members who participated in Vigorous Warrior 26 in Klooga, Estonia pose for a...... read more read more
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TALLINN, Estonia - NATO allies from 32 partner countries participated in Vigorous Warrior 26 at training sites across Estonia from 8-20 June 2026.
The Vigorous Warrior exercise series is organized by the NATO Centre of Excellence for Military Medicine every two years. It allows participating NATO and partner nations to exercise together in a realistic scenario, providing a unique opportunity to train along civilian assets, and offering nations the ability to exercise experimental doctrinal concepts, train in a multinational environment, and stress their medical assets which include first-responder, field hospital, theatre hospital, and definitive full-capability hospital care.
“NATO exercises like Vigorous Warrior 26 are instrumental in preparing our forces for large scale combat operations,” said Maryland Army National Guard Col. Louis Hawkins, the Chief of Joint Staff for the Maryland National Guard. “The relationships we build here are a force multiplier and must be enduring, increasing our medical readiness for future exercises and operations.”
One group collecting lessons learned from the exercise was the U.S. Air Force International Health Specialist Program. At VW26 IHS personnel were crucial to synchronizing medical doctrine across 32 allied and partner nations. By streamlining cross-border casualty movement and validating civil-military health continuity on NATO’s eastern flank, IHS medical diplomats ensured the combined force is structurally prepared to project and sustain resilient medical power in a contested environment.
“One of our roles in Vigorous Warrior 26, in collaboration with the NATO Center of Excellence for Military Medicine, is to capture best practices and lessons learned so that we can take this information and shape the environments for future exercises,” said U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. Luis Jara, the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the International Health Specialist Program.
The training helped prepare Soldiers and Airmen for realistic NATO collective defense operations. Soldiers and Airmen worked together with allies to treat simulated casualties with a wide variety of conditions and injuries. Maryland Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Laurie Gotte, a combat medic specialist with the 224th Medical Company, Area Support, was glad she got to participate and optimistic about future operations.
“I think Vigorous Warrior 26 is an amazing opportunity to practice interoperability among so many different countries and entities,” said Gotte. “It’ll be very interesting to see where this goes from year to year and how we can grow not only with our state partnerships, but with other allies.”
The National Guard’s State Partnership program was on full display. SPP supports the security cooperation objectives of the United States and Geographic Combatant Commands (GCC) by developing enduring relationships with partner countries and carrying out activities to build partner capacity, improve interoperability, and enhance U.S. relations, while increasing the readiness of the U.S. and partner forces to meet emerging challenges.
The Maryland National Guard hosted armed forces from Belgium, Slovakia, and Georgia in their field hospital in Klooga while enabling Slovakia and Georgia partner nations to work with their SPP partners in Indiana and Georgia National Guards respectively. Maryland was also able to work with the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina who they have been partnered with for 23 years.
The 224th MCAS from the Maryland Army National Guard would not have participated in Vigorous Warrior 26 without the support of Maryland’s other State Partner Estonia who hosted the whole exercise. The close relationship with Estonia provides multiple valuable training opportunities every year and strengthens our 33 yearlong alliance.
“Leveraging our SPP relationships to work together and seamlessly integrate our partner nations in a large-scale exercise shows the culmination of military-to-military exchanges and the enduring advantage of the state partnership program,” said Hawkins.
By the time a major crisis hits—whether it's a natural disaster or a geopolitical conflict—NATO partners don't waste time figuring out how to work together. Because of the IHS program, and the SPP program the handshakes have already happened, the systems are already integrated, and Soldiers and Airmen are ready to save lives as a unified global team.
| Date Taken: | 06.19.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 06.25.2026 15:06 |
| Story ID: | 568257 |
| Location: | EE |
| Web Views: | 66 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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