DUNBAR, W.Va. –
The West Virginia Army National Guard’s Army Interagency Training and Education Center - or AITEC - is known nationwide for their multifaceted training and highly skilled personnel. One branch of AITEC is the Cyber Protection Team - Mission Element, a newly-formed part of the U.S. military’s Cyber Mission Force and the only CPT-ME in the U.S. National Guard to belong to a training center, not a Joint Forces Headquarters.
AITEC announced a new mission for their CPT-ME - a role in planning Eagle Resolve 2025 alongside host nation Qatar. Eagle Resolve is a U.S. Central Command Combined Joint All-Domain exercise that rotates between CENTCOM nations, changing focus every few years to a specific area of defense. West Virginia’s State Partnership Program partner Qatar is slated for 2025-2026, with the exercise focusing on cybersecurity.
Launched in 2023 the CPT-ME is an agile embedded prevention and response team designed to provide preventative cybersecurity expertise, trend analysis and response to critical state and local networks essential to government and private critical industry functions. For ER25, the CPT-ME will join forces with Gulf Cooperation Council partners and the U.S. military to collaborate with the QAF and the U.S. Army Reserve Cyber Protection Brigade in a cybersecurity-focused joint exercise.
Strengthening Multinational Cyber Defense
ER25 will bring together multinational partners from the GCC—Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, UAE, and Qatar —and U.S. military units from across the enterprise. This exercise marks a significant expansion in military cooperation, particularly in cybersecurity. As part of the joint training, AITEC’s CPT-ME will work in conjunction with various concurrent exercises, including an air component field training exercise, a virtual command post exercise, and an advanced cyber range exercise, where cyber threats and solutions will be simulated in real-time.
AITEC’s new CPT-ME mission aligns with its goal of building cyber resilience within both local and global networks.
“We’re honored to be a part of Eagle Resolve and to work alongside our GCC partners,” said CPT. William Pauley, AITEC Brigade Information Systems Officer. “The officers and NCOs of the new WVNG Cyber Protection Team - Mission Element are privileged to have this opportunity to hone and expand our individual skill sets in this new unit and strengthen our state partnership with Qatar as they continue to develop their cyber defense programs.”
“Eagle Resolve is an invaluable opportunity, and we are thrilled to be part of it,” Pauley said.
First-of-its-kind multinational Cybersecurity Exchange
ER25 also represents a milestone: the first concurrent multinational cybersecurity training session between the U.S. and GCC militaries. Cyber units will share strategies, best practices, and hands-on training in a unified exercise. As the cybersecurity threat landscape evolves, so too does the importance of coalition interoperability. The exercise will not only bolster individual capabilities but will also strengthen joint defensive postures, enabling quicker responses to emerging regional threats.
“Being invited to participate in ER25 is a testament to AITEC’s expanded mission and the WVNG’s commitment to advancing cybersecurity on a global scale,” said AITEC Brigade Information Systems Officer CPT. William Pauley. “With the CPT-ME’s expertise in digital defense and their integration into multinational training, AITEC is positioning itself as a leading force in cybersecurity education and response.”