Air Defense: Eurofighter Jet Fights Off Territorial Incursion by Enemy Aircraft at Night
**Pitch Black 2024: A Global Air Combat Exercise in Northern Australia**
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is hosting the largest edition of Exercise Pitch Black yet, a biennial multinational air combat exercise held primarily at RAAF bases in Darwin and Tindal, Northern Australia. Over 4,400 personnel and more than 140 aircraft from 20 countries are participating in this year's event, which runs from July 12 to August 2.
The exercise offers unique opportunities for air forces to coordinate better, especially with allied nations they don't typically work with. For instance, Germany, France, and Spain are using Pitch Black to improve their joint operations. The Spanish Air and Space Force, in particular, has never deployed on a mission of this magnitude before and has spent almost a year preparing for the exercise.
The Philippines Air Force is participating with four FA-50 fighter jets and 162 personnel, while Singapore is contributing various aircraft types, including F-16 fighter aircraft and naval elements in separate joint exercises. India regularly treats Pitch Black as a major multinational air combat training opportunity, augmenting their domestic exercises with experience in complex coalition settings.
Exercise Pitch Black provides air forces with a rare opportunity to practice night flying, air-to-air combat, air-to-ground strikes, reconnaissance, and live weapons employment over vast, sparsely populated areas. This simulated real combat conditions in a safe environment away from civilian populations.
The exercise is critical for participating air forces, such as the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF), which benefits from access to large airspace (over 10 times its home airspace), realistic terrain, and complex scenarios unavailable in their smaller home region.
Captain Fabian, a German Eurofighter pilot, and Commander of the detachment at Pitch Black, has accumulated more than 1,500 hours of flying time. He and Major Fernando, a Spanish Eurofighter pilot and chief of air operations in the exercise, lead their respective nations' air forces in offensive counter air operations (OCAs) and defensive counter air operations (DCAs) during the exercise.
Each Pitch Black mission typically lasts about two days, consisting of a planning phase, execution phase, and analysis phase. Interoperability is crucial for the exercise, with each nation's air force trying to share operational procedures for a common understanding of air operations.
In offensive missions, Spanish Eurofighters are usually tasked with air-to-air missions to clear the air threat for other fighters to engage targets on the ground. Air-to-air refueling is very important during Pitch Black missions, with A330 MRTTs from various countries providing fuel to extend the fighters' range and station time.
The objective of Pitch Black is to eliminate the enemy threat, and crews from different countries have exchanged to improve collaboration and learn each other's operating procedures. SSG (NS) Lim Pei Zhen from the Republic of Singapore Air Force finds it interesting and fun to showcase the RSAF's tanker capability at Pitch Black.
After more than two hours of missions, the planes land in Darwin, and the following day is dedicated to analyzing the mission and drawing lessons learned. The sunset over Darwin Air Base in Australia's Northern Territory is jaw-droppingly beautiful, providing a fitting backdrop for the exercise's conclusion. The Eurofighter's air-to-air and air-to-surface capabilities are emphasized as still being at the forefront during this year's Pitch Black exercise.
The Spanish Air and Space Force is utilizing Exercise Pitch Black to expand their operations and capabilities in the aerospace industry, as they have never deployed on a mission of this magnitude before. In this global air combat exercise, finance plays a crucial role, as various countries invest resources to partake and hone their skills for better coordination in the finance sector, particularly with allied nations they don't typically work with.
