All the pieces to learn about Exercise Pitch Black as conflict video games arrive in Top Finish

Up to 100 fighter jets from around the globe will take to the skies over northern Australia for Exercise Pitch Black tomorrow within the Royal Australian Air Force’s (RAAF) largest air fight coaching exercise.

The RAAF says the biennial conflict video games assist strengthen Australia’s relationships with allied companions, with 1000’s of personnel from 20 nations taking part on this yr’s manoeuvres, together with the brand new addition of embedded aviators from Finland and Sweden.

The 2026 workouts come amid heightened tensions within the area, starting two weeks after China fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean from a nuclear-powered submarine for the primary time earlier this month.

What is Exercise Pitch Black?

Exercise Pitch Black is a large-scale coaching exercise involving the RAAF and allied nations held each two years for greater than 4 a long time.

From July 20 to August 7, 2,500 army personnel will use Darwin as their main base whereas navigating practical and complicated coaching eventualities.

As the title suggests, Exercise Pitch Black permits aviators to follow manoeuvres in all situations, together with at night time.

Since 1983, Darwin has hosted the conflict video games with the assistance of RAAF Base Tindal in Katherine and RAAF Base Amberley, south-west of Brisbane.

The 20 nations collaborating on this yr’s workouts embody New Zealand, the United States, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, the Republic of Korea, India, Singapore, Germany, France, Spain, Fiji, Canada, Brunei, Malaysia, Finland and Sweden.

For the primary time, Japan has despatched its F-35 Lightning II, and Indonesia has introduced its T-50I Golden Eagle jets.

What are they coaching for?

Pitch Black train commander Air Commodore Matthew McCormack mentioned aviators weren’t coaching for anyone particular menace.

“The analogy I use is like a World Cup football match,” he mentioned.

“You wouldn’t expect that your nation’s team would rock up to the grand final … without a whole bunch of practice before getting to that position.”

Despite heightened tensions internationally amid China’s current missile strike and the conflict in Iran, Air Commodore McCormack mentioned the follow eventualities can be primarily based on a “generic”, “high-threat environment”.

“Clearly, Defence is acutely aware of what’s going on in our region, as are all our partners, what’s going on in the global environment, and these are interesting times that we live in,” he mentioned.

“However, the entire function of all our companion nations being right here is to try this coaching, to uplift our talent units.

“It’s not targeted on any explicit, present state of affairs or current state of affairs. It is a part of the coaching continuum.”

What plane will probably be concerned?

Plane spotters rejoice!

More than 20 various kinds of plane from 15 nations will probably be taking part in Exercise Pitch Black this yr.

France will be flying its CN-235, while both Germany and Spain are set to steal the show with their supersonic Typhoons.

The United Kingdom has sent over its Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker, while the United States has brought its C-130J, F-35A and KC-135 assets.

Papua New Guinea’s PAC-750, the Philippines’ FA-50PH and Korea’s F-16 will even make appearances.

For the first time, Japan will be participating in the war games with its F-35 Lightning II while Indonesia launches its T-50I Golden Eagle jets.

For these feeling notably patriotic, the RAAF will provide eight various kinds of plane, together with an F-35A Lightning II, an F/A-18F Super Hornet and an EA-18G Growler.

What can we count on?

It’s about to get pretty noisy in Darwin, with the ground-shaking rumble of fighter jets taking off starting from tomorrow.

From Monday to Sunday this week, about 100 plane will launch in waves in each the morning and early afternoon.

Next week, locals and visitors can expect to hear and see the jets set off in the early and late afternoons between Monday and Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the night time flying element of the train will happen between August 3 and August 6.

To make up for the disruption, the Australian and international aviators will put on a show on July 23, flying over Mindil Beach at sunset.

The RAAF will even open its doorways to the general public for its biennial open day on August 1.