Featuring high-stakes training scenarios and up to 100 fighter jets from across the world, the Royal Australian Air Force's biggest international training exercise is back after a four-year hiatus.
abc.net.au/news/what-is-exercise-pitch-black-darwin-nt-raaf-air-force-training/101350926Up to 100 fighter jets will be roaring across the skies over Darwin in the coming weeks as Exercise Pitch Black returns to the Northern Territory after a four-year hiatus.
"When you go and look at the scale of our training airspace in the territory, and the access we have to some of our training ranges, there's nothing like it in the world. It's the size of a European country," said the exercise commander, Air Commodore Tim Alsop.First held in Williamtown, New South Wales, in 1981 with only Australian forces, in 1983 the exercise moved to Darwin and gained its first international partner in the United States.
Commanding officers of the groups from participating countries gathered for the exercise launch in Darwin on Friday. He said overall, the aircraft part of this year's exercise included some of the most cutting-edge aviation technology in the world at the moment. "For example, they may be provided with a scenario where a fictional force has taken hostages, [and] we have to get a transport aircraft in to recover those hostages, but it's opposed," Air Commodore Alsop said.
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