NT to go Pitch Black for air combat event

The Northern Territory will once host an influx of military personnel in 2024, when the biennial Pitch Black air defence exercise returns to the Top End’s empty skies.

Republic of Singapore Air Force F-16D. Picture: Nigel Pittaway

The Northern Territory’s economy will once again benefit from a huge influx of military personnel in 2024, when the biennial Pitch Black air defence exercise returns to the Top End’s empty skies.

The 2024 exercise is likely to surpass the size of the last event in 2022, which saw more than 2500 personnel from 17 nations – and about 100 aircraft – descend upon Darwin and Katherine.

While the previous exercise stretched local infrastructure almost to the limit, the Royal Australian Air Force’s bases at Darwin and Tindal, outside Katherine, will have their airfield facilities significantly upgraded by 2024.

Pitch Black is billed as the largest air combat exercise in the southern hemisphere and it is arguably one of the largest of its kind in the world, with only the US Air Force’s “Red Flag” series held in Nevada and Alaska surpassing it.

What makes Pitch Black so attractive from a training point of view is the large amount of unrestricted airspace available in Australia’s north, allowing large force employment exercises involving dozens of fighter jets at a time to practise their trade.

The airspace available for the exercise is enormous, beginning about 100km south of Darwin and encompassing about 214,000sq km, stretching from the Stuart Highway in the east to the northern Australian coast in the west, and from the desert floor to an altitude of 15,240m, with very few restrictions.

Anecdotally, fast jet crews participating for the first time are told that if they engage
their afterburner on entry into the exercise area, they will run out of fuel before running out of airspace.

Pitch Black represents one of the largest air training areas in the world and also encompasses two of the RAAF’s major training areas: the vast Bradshaw Field Training Area and Delamere Air Weapons Range.

The incorporation of these ranges into the exercise scenario means live and inert weapons can be employed and air-land scenarios expanded to integrate with air combat missions.

The range of missions performed during Exercise Pitch Black can therefore
range from close air support and air-to-ground precision strike sorties to fighter sweeps, air-to-air combat, high-value escorts, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance missions.

Furthermore, the large distances make air-to-air refuelling and airborne early warning and control support essential, which injects additional complexity and increases training value.

From its early beginnings as a training exercise between the RAAF and the Republic of Singapore Air Force, Pitch Black has continued to grow, and in 2022 combat aircraft from nine other nations were deployed to the Territory. Included in that exercise for the first time were fighter jets from Germany’s Luftwaffe, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and the Republic of Korea Air Force.

Pitch Black 2024 will likely see the Philippines take part for the only the second time.

With the increased instability in the Indo-Pacific region, countries are looking to partner with like-minded nations. Given the geopolitical realities, the exercise seems set for continued growth.