Air Forces Northern and the Continental United States NORAD Region will hone civil support and homeland defense skills May 8 to 18 in Exercise Ardent Sentry 2006.

Ardent Sentry is a bi-national, multi-level exercise involving military and civilian agencies in Canada and the U.S. to test both countries' abilities to provide defense support to civil authorities and defend against airborne aggression.

The primary objective of the exercise is to give federal, provincial, state and local authorities the opportunity to work together across a full spectrum of training opportunities to better respond to national crises. The exercise will stress consequence management for a variety of man-made and natural disasters.

The primary exercise events will take place in Colorado, Michigan, Florida, New Mexico, Arizona, the provinces of Ontario and New Brunswick, Canada, and their adjacent waters. Although there will be no major movement of military forces during the exercise, units at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Mich.; Tyndall AFB, Fla.; and Playas, N.M., will conduct local field training.