Page 36 - Australian Defence Magazine November 2022

36 DEFENCE BUSINESS PITCH BLACK 2022
NOVEMBER 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
PITCH BLACK FOSTERS INDO-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIPS
New regional partnerships are being forged in response to the growing threat of China’s expansionist policies in the Indo-Pacific and a number of these were in evidence during the recent Pitch Black air combat exercise in the Northern Territory.
NIGEL PITTAWAY | RAAF DARWIN & TINDAL
HELD in Australia’s Top End every two years, Pitch Black is the Royal Australian Air Force’s largest exercise and also the largest air combat exercise regularly held in the south- ern hemisphere.
Pitch Black is traditionally centred around the RAAF Bases in Darwin and at Tindal, near Katherine, and makes use of the vast empty skies of the Northern Territory as well as the Delamere Air Weapons Range and Bradshaw Field Training Area.
Pitch Black 2022 was held between August 19 and Sep- tember 8 and was the largest in the biennial series so far, attracting around 100 combat aircraft from 11 nations and
around 2,500 personnel. Including observer nations, the number of countries represented at the exercise rises to 17. “With 17 nations participating, Exercise Pitch Black will allow the RAAF to work with our allies and partners, shar- ing tactics and procedures that will enhance interoperabil- ity between our forces,” Exercise Commander, Air Com- modore Tim Alsop, commented as Pitch Black 2022 began. “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 latter feature resulted in no fewer than seven Airbus