The Black Pitch Exercise Begins in NT

The Darwin Tropical Sky will be dominated by 140 air force aircraft from around the world over the next three weeks in one of the largest military exercises in the Asia region. -Pacific

exercise but it is a serious opportunity for the Australian Air Force and other involved countries to practice the fight together.

More than 4,000 people from around the world will take part in the exercises between RAAF Darwin, RAAF Tindal in Katherine and the Ocean and "Many times Australia has participated in operations around the world, we have participated as a member of a coalition and practice as part of this coalition is really important, "he added. Air Commodore Michael Kitcher, who heads Pitch Black, told reporters:

"Even though we are flying all fighter planes, transport planes or other planes, we do it all differently The discovery of realistic scenarios as we present it in Pitch Black allows us to really learn from each other.

"When you can fly with Indians, Indonesians, Thai, Singaporeans and Americans, you can go, perform missions, come back"

In addition to air combat, the exercise will include a field hospital, Stabilization and security operations, including elements of the air force and logistical support.

The Northern Territory is considered an excellent location due to all the l & # 39; unpopulated space that planes can fly over and is as close to major Asian cities as Sydney and Melbourne

. Only six months after the completion of Australian Super Hornets operations in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State in Operation Okra.

For some residents of Darwin, the event, which has been going on since the 1990s, is a noisy intrusion but it is injecting millions of dollars into the economy and for fans of Planes and those who are interested, there will be an air show with planes pbading over the Mindil Beach market on the evening of August 2 and an open house. The air forces involved come from Canada, France, New Caledonia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Sweden and Thailand. and the United States.