After the 2020 event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the southern hemisphere’s premier air combat exercise has returned to Australia’s Top End.
Centred around RAAF Bases Darwin and Tindal in the Northern Territory, Exercise Pitch Black 2022 was the largest in the biennial series to date, with around 100 combat aircraft from 11 nations taking part.
Including observers, 2,500 personnel from 17 nations participated in Exercise Pitch Black 22, which Defence says is aimed at enhancing interoperability and developing strong military relationships between the militaries of countries taking part.
Beginning on 19 August, the exercise ultimately concluded at the end of this week (September 8).
“With 17 nations participating, Exercise Pitch Black will allow the RAAF to work with our allies and partners, sharing tactics and procedures that will enhance interoperability between our forces,” commented Exercise Commander Air Commodore Tim Alsop.
“Pitch Black is a large force employment exercise driven by fighter combat scenarios. This year, significant efforts have been made to advance the air-to-air refuelling (AAR) capability of the participating nations.”
This saw no fewer than seven Airbus A330 multi-role tanker transports (including two RAAF KC-30As participating with two US Marine Corps KC-130J Hercules tankers to enable large forces of combat aircraft to do battle each day.
Pitch Black 2022 was also significant in that it marked the debut of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, with both the RAAF (Darwin) and the US Marine Corps (Tindal) participating with the F-35A and F-35B respectively.
Perhaps reflecting the escalating tensions within the Indo-Pacific region, now fewer than four air arms (from Germany, Japan, South Korea and NATO) participated with aircraft during the exercise, which involved complicated offensive counter air (OCA) and defensive counter air (DCA) scenarios being played out.
“Several countries are participating in Pitch Black for the first time and we welcome them to the exercise and the magnificent Northern Territory,” AIRCDRE Alsop said.
The exercise involved both day and night missions which took advantage of the vast training area available in the relatively empty skies of Australia’s Top End.
One aspect missing largely from Pitch Black 2022 however was the Air-Land Integration piece evident in recent iterations and instead this year’s event concentrated on the air combat role. The only airlifter to take part in fact was a single Airbus CN235 from the French Air Force, which played the role of a high value asset (HVA) insertion/removal platform to complicate the air picture.
Control for the exercise was provided by the ground controllers of the RAAF’s 114 Mobile Control and Reporting (MCRU) unit and single examples of an RAAF E-7A Wedgetail and Republic of Singapore Air Force Gulfstream 550 airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft.
Such was the impact of Pitch Black 2022 that before the exercise had concluded, Germany’s Luftwaffe indicated its intention to participate in the 2024 event and the Philippines’ Department of National Defence (DND) announced it will participate for the first time with a number of KAI KA-50 fighters.
A detailed look at each Pitch Black 2022 participant will follow on ADM’s website and an in-depth look at the exercise will appear in the November issue of the print magazine.
