CAMP GRAYLING, Mich. — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday made her first observation of Michigan National Guard members practicing battlefield scenarios at Operation Northern Strike, an annual joint-training exercise for National Guard troops and allied soldiers from around the world.

More than 7,000 troops are slated to participate in two weeks of exercises at Camp Grayling that conclude Saturday, including units from 25 other states and four other countries.

The two weeks of exercises present a “unique training opportunity,” Whitmer said ahead of observing an F-16 flyover and A-10 munitions demonstration at the camp with a group of lawmakers, Michigan National Guard leaders and Latvia’s chief of defense.

“You can’t displace the real world challenges,” Whitmer said. “You can only replicate and go through the process of making sure everyone’s prepared when they’re there.”

This year marks the 30th year Latvian troops are training at Camp Grayling, but the operation’s importance is heightened this year in light of the ongoing war between the neighboring nations of Russia and Ukraine. Latvia’s new president, Edgars Rinkevics, is the nation’s long-serving foreign minister and is known for his strong support for Ukraine.

At Camp Grayling, Latvia’s Chief of Defense, Lt. Gen. Leonids Kalnins, praised the training his roughly 50 troops receive at the location. He said the annual training is one of the largest his troops participate in each year. This year, it is an added tool to develop expertise and understanding of the “modern war” in Ukraine, he said.

“We have this absolutely open door,” Kalnins said of Camp Grayling. “And we are able to choose which kind of capabilities we are able (to focus on) for training.”

The 148,000-acre Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center has recently come under some scrutiny after the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs proposed a plan that would roughly double the size of the camp by entering a 20-year lease for forested land currently owned and managed by the Department of Natural Resources.

Grayling residents and Au Sable River anglers protested the plan, arguing that the expansion would encroach on the area’s natural charm and that the property was being used increasingly for testing of unknown defense tools from independent contractors.

The DNR in April declined the request to expand the camp’s size and, instead, said it would require the Department of Military and Veteran Affairs to apply for limited-use permits to use up to 52,000 acres of DNR land. The permits would allow for “low-impact training” on land that would remain open to the public at all times.

There have been no limited-use permit requests submitted to the DNR in the nearly four months since the decision was announced, according to the DNR.

Michigan National Guard Adjutant General Paul Rogers, director for the Michigan Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, said the National Guard is interested in continuing an “open” and “transparent” dialog with the community about operations at the camp.

“We have a professional obligation to ensure the women and men who wear our uniform are ready for the complex battlefield that they face in the future,” Rogers said.

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