Photo By 1st Lt. Andrew Layton | MQ-9 Reaper maintenance personnel assigned to the 214th Attack Group, Fort Huachuca, Ariz., celebrate after the MQ-9 makes its initial flight from Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, Mich., July 18, 2019. The MQ-9's historic first launch into Michigan's national airspace comes just ahead of the aircraft's participation in exercise Northern Strike 19, the DoD's largest annual joint, reserve component readiness event. Northern Strike is a Joint National Training Center accredited exercise, sponsored by the National Guard Bureau, to provide accessible, readiness-building opportunities for units from all branches of military service to achieve or sustain proficiency in conducting mission command, air, sea, and ground maneuver integration, including the synchronization of fires in a joint, multinational, decisive action, major combat operations environment that is scalable to meet unit resource levels.