OP-ED: Locked Shields 2026, the exercise that proves the West can still defend itself

The Latvian-Singaporean duo takes the lead

On the competitive front, the 2026 edition crowned the joint team from Latvia and Singapore as the overall winner of the exercise. This collaboration between a Baltic country directly bordering Russia and an Asian city-state renowned for its technological excellence perfectly illustrates the spirit of international cooperation that the exercise seeks to foster.

Second place went to the combined team from Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, while third place went to the France–Sweden duo. These rankings are not merely symbolic trophies: they reflect actual cyber defense capabilities assessed under pressure, in conditions close to real-world scenarios.

Sixteen Multinational Teams Participated

In total, 16 multinational “blue” teams participated in this edition, each composed of specialists from several countries working together under pressure to defend Berylia’s simulated systems. This multinational structure forces participants to collaborate across usual linguistic and institutional boundaries—an exercise in coordination that is almost as valuable as technical expertise itself.

It is this ability to work together—under the leadership of exercise director Dan Ungureanu—that perhaps constitutes the true added value of Locked Shields: transforming isolated national experts into a truly collective defense force.

I see this international podium as a powerful symbol. Latvia, on the front lines facing Russia, and Singapore, on the other side of the world, winning together: this is exactly the kind of technological solidarity that the West and its partners need in the face of authoritarian regimes.

Tallinn, the Symbolic Capital of Cyber Defense

The choice of Tallinn as the headquarters of the CCDCOE and host of Locked Shields is by no means a geographical coincidence. As early as 2007, Estonia was the target of one of the first documented large-scale cyberattacks against a nation-state—a defining moment that spurred this small Baltic country to become a global leader in cyber defense.

Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur personally welcomed the 2026 edition, a gesture that underscores the political importance the country attaches to this issue, far beyond the exercise’s purely technical dimension.

A Message to Authoritarian Neighbors

By hosting an exercise of this magnitude, Estonia is sending a clear signal to its neighbors, particularly Russia: a country’s small size does not prevent it from becoming a globally recognized center of strategic excellence. This is a lesson in resilience that deserves to be highlighted in the current geopolitical context.

Estonia’s stance also illustrates the strength of the Western model: rather than passively enduring the threat, NATO member countries choose to invest heavily in collective preparedness and the sharing of expertise among allies.

I sincerely commend Estonia’s leadership on this issue. A small country that endured a historic cyberattack and turned it into a collective strength for the entire West—this is a story of resilience that deserves to be told more widely.

A Concrete Response to Documented Threats

For years, Western intelligence agencies have been documenting cyber intrusion attempts attributed to Russian, Chinese, Iranian, and North Korean state actors targeting critical infrastructure in Europe and North America. Locked Shields is therefore not an academic exercise disconnected from reality: it is a direct response to a persistent and documented threat.

The multinational nature of the exercise also makes it possible to test interoperability between the defense systems of different countries—a crucial issue, since modern cyberattacks, of course, do not respect any national borders.

Investing in Preparedness Rather Than Regret

This type of exercise is costly, mobilizes considerable human resources, and requires complex logistical coordination among 41 nations. But the cost of being unprepared—in the event of an actual attack on critical infrastructure—would be incomparably higher, both in human and economic terms.

It’s a simple logic that many Western decision-makers have finally come to embrace: it’s better to invest heavily in collective prevention than to discover, in the midst of an actual crisis, the extent of one’s own digital vulnerabilities.

I believe this kind of preventive investment is underestimated by the general public, simply because it doesn’t produce spectacular images. But it is precisely this invisible work that prevents visible disasters from occurring.

Deterrence That Is No Longer Limited to Conventional Weapons

For a long time, Western deterrence focused almost exclusively on conventional and nuclear military capabilities. Locked Shields 2026 illustrates a major shift: cyber defense is becoming a pillar in its own right of the collective security posture, on par with tanks or fighter jets.

This shift reflects a clear-eyed assessment of contemporary conflicts, in which the first salvos of a major confrontation could well be digital rather than kinetic, targeting critical infrastructure even before any conventional armed conflict begins.

A message sent to Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, and Pyongyang

By increasing the frequency of such large-scale exercises, the West is sending a clear deterrent message to regimes that might be tempted to launch massive cyberattacks: collective preparedness makes these attacks far more costly and far less likely to succeed without an immediate, coordinated response.

This is exactly the kind of strategic resolve that deserves unreserved praise in a geopolitical context where Russia continues its aggression against Ukraine and where China, Iran, and North Korea remain persistent threats to Western security.

I have no reservations about commending this stance. Faced with authoritarian regimes that do not hesitate to use cyberspace as a weapon, the West is right to respond with preparedness, cooperation, and a demonstration of collective strength.

Simulating an attack is not the same as experiencing a real one

It would be naive to believe that an exercise—even one as impressive as Locked Shields 2026—guarantees total protection against a real attack. Simulated scenarios, no matter how realistic, can never perfectly replicate the pressure, uncertainty, and chaos of a real-time crisis affecting critical infrastructure.

Cybersecurity experts themselves regularly acknowledge this limitation: preparedness reduces vulnerability, but it never completely eliminates it in the face of adversaries who, too, are constantly evolving their attack methods.

An Ongoing Race Against Evolving Adversaries

Cyberdefense is never a permanent achievement. Attack techniques are constantly evolving, which means that exercises like Locked Shields must themselves continue to evolve, year after year, to remain relevant in the face of adversaries who never cease to innovate in their offensive methods.

It is a race with no definitive finish line, but it is precisely for this reason that the regularity and scale of this annual exercise matter so much for the long-term collective security of the West.

I remain realistic: no exercise makes us invincible. But I much prefer a West that trains seriously every year to a West that would wait for a real catastrophe to discover its vulnerabilities.

A Discreet but Real Presence

While Europe remains at the center of Locked Shields, North American partners—including units from the U.S. National Guard—actively participate in related exercises such as Cyber Endeavor, which strengthen ties between European and North American allies on cyber defense issues. This transatlantic cooperation remains an essential pillar of the West’s collective defense strategy.

Canada, a long-standing participant in NATO structures, benefits directly from this type of exercise through the sharing of knowledge and best practices among allies, even when its direct participation remains more low-key than that of certain front-line European partners.

Transatlantic Solidarity That Must Be Strengthened

In the face of threats that know no geographical boundaries, it would be desirable for North American participation in this type of exercise to continue to intensify in future editions. Western cyber defense becomes more effective whenever more allied countries, on both sides of the Atlantic, actively participate and share their lessons learned.

This is an area where North American and European solidarity should continue to grow stronger, rather than remaining a mere juxtaposition of parallel and insufficiently coordinated national efforts.

What 41 nations have just demonstrated together

By bringing together more than 4,000 experts from 41 nations for a single exercise, Locked Shields 2026 demonstrates one essential fact: the West and its partners are not passively waiting for the next major cyber crisis. They are actively preparing for it, collectively, and with a level of seriousness that deserves greater recognition from the general public.

In a world where Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea pose persistent threats, this ability to mobilize so many countries around a common goal of cyber defense is a legitimate source of confidence for the future of Western security.

An exercise to watch, year after year

We will need to continue monitoring future editions of Locked Shields to gauge the evolution of threats and the responses provided by this international coalition of digital defenders. But the 2026 edition, with its record-breaking scale, already sends a reassuring message about the collective state of readiness of our democracies in the face of contemporary cyber threats.

By Maxime Marquette, columnist