Largest ever exercise draws in international air forces fielding over 130 fast-jets.
Australia hosted its largest ever fast-jet exercise from 12 July through to 2 August, attracting more than 130 fighters that operated out of Tindal and Darwin in Australia’s far north. This location was particularly well suited to Exercise Pitch Black 2024, thanks to an exercise area equalling the size of the UK!
The aim was to execute advanced air combat capabilities within a multilateral environment, and more than 4,400 personnel from 20 nations were involved. Aircraft from Australia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, the UK and USA participated, whilst Brunei, Canada, Fiji and New Zealand contributed personnel.
The biennial event was marred by the crash of an Italian Eurofighter midway through, but fortunately the pilot was uninjured after ejecting.
One observer was General Kevin Schneider, commander of U.S. Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). He remarked, “With the scope of Pitch Black, we’re hoping to bring many more countries into these types of events to continue building a worldwide network of specialists to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
The USAF contributed just six aircraft, making it one of the smaller contingents at Pitch Black 2024. However, those half-dozen aircraft were Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptors, the first time this fifth-generation platform had joined Pitch Black. During the exercise, they performed around 80 sorties with a wide range of other aircraft.
Lieutenant Colonel Ty Bridge, deputy chief, Exercises Division of PACAF, told Asian Military Review: “The great thing about having such a premier aircraft is we can adapt and adjust with as many different reps and sets that we can get. We can then progressively increase the complexity of the events as the different countries learn, adapt and then are hungry to get at another chance for something tougher.”
Regarding the exercise’s scale, Bridge said, “You want it so that more countries are able to get into the exercise.” Indeed, Pitch Black’s multilateral nature brings PACAF advantages, since engagement can increase without having to double up in separate bilateral exercises on other occasions.
Australia, Italy, Japan and Singapore provided airborne early warning aircraft. In fact, American personnel were embedded aboard an Australian Boeing E-7A Wedgetail during the event. This is something American airmen have been doing since 2022, as the USA prepares to replace old Boeing E-3 Sentry aircraft with the E-7.
Major Oliver Ngayan of the USAF, an E-7A Wedgetail air battle manager, commented, “For us, the purpose is really to get a familiarity of the E-7A Wedgetail from the Australians who have been operating it for a long time. We integrate into their unit to learn how they operate the E-7A and take back that knowledge to develop our own procedures.”
Australia and the USA have particularly close military ties, but a feature of this year’s Pitch Black was incorporation of a bevy of other nations. Even Papua New Guinea got involved with its Pacific Aerospace PAC-750XL turboprops helping ferry VIPs between Darwin and Tindal.
In fact, ‘interoperability’ was the buzzword at this year’s event, as more than 1,700 sorties occurred over three weeks of flying.
Notable was the strong European presence, with returnees France, Germany and the U.K. joined by first-timers Italy and Spain.
Pierre-André Imbert, France’s Ambassador to Australia, explained the exercise’s importance: “We have different exercises to be sure that we can interoperate and be ready to assist each other. That’s why it’s very key for us to ensure freedom of navigation to have access to the commons and to demonstrate that we’re ready to come and to be here very quickly, to participate with our allies and to defend our territories and also our friends.”
Europe also contributed the first ever aircraft carrier to a Pitch Black event, as the Italian Navy’s Cavour conducted a five-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region. Having naval aviation involved was a unique aspect to this year’s iteration of the exercise.
RAAF Group Captain Gary Sadler, deputy commander of Pitch Black 2024, said, “Obviously, having a carrier for the first time changes things up quite considerably.” He described it as an “absolute game-changer” and a “very, very valuable capability” that brought a dynamic the exercise has not had previously. Concerning future Pitch Blacks, Sadler said, “I think there’s considerable opportunity for us to integrate that into future iterations of the exercise mission sets, because it does bring that flexibility … So it’s a great thing to have.”
After leaving Australia, Cavour travelled to Guam and Japan, before passing through the South China Sea to the Philippines. The Italian Navy’s Rear Admiral Giancarlo Ciappina explained, “An aircraft carrier – just being present somewhere – it has an effect, it can influence. It’s a very powerful tool.” Europe, and not just Asia, is very concerned at China’s worsening antics in places like the South China Sea.
Likewise, Colonel M. Kobayashi, the Japanese Detachment Commander, said: “The security environment in the Indo-Pacific region has become increasingly severe. At this difficult time, it’s extremely important for allies and like-minded countries’ forces to work closely and cooperate.”
AMR asked whether the Chinese threat played into the exercise scenario in any way, and Sadler stated, “In terms of the strategic challenges around the globe at the moment, we certainly acknowledge those when we’re talking about the activities that we’re trying to look out for in the exercise. And whilst they may have a broad shaping effect, there’s no specific activity within the exercise per se.”
Sadler emphasised that the exercise was “really around making sure that we can interoperate and cooperate in terms of safe and professional aviation operations”.
Pitch Black may have reached its current limits in terms of size, since ramp space was at maximum capacity this year, so much so that most of the aerial refuelling fleet had to be based 1,620 nautical miles (3,000km) away at RAAF Base Amberley near Brisbane. Construction work is ongoing at both Darwin and Tindal to improve infrastructure, with the US funding $450 million of it. Once completed, this could enable even wider participation in future Pitch Blacks.
by Gordon Arthur, Darwin
