PITCH BLACK 2024 MINDIL BEACH flying display Darwin Northern Territory Australia 🇦🇺

Awesome show at Mindil Beach. Pitch Black 2024 Mindil beach Flying Display Air Show | Darwin Northern Territory Australia | Air Force Aircraft 🇦🇺
Exercise Pitch Black is the Air Force’s largest and most complex air exercise, traditionally held in the Northern Territory every two years. We stopped and filmed some of the aircraft flying around near the airport. Love it! Magnificent!
Exercise Pitch Black 24 will be the largest in the exercise’s 43-year history. It will bring together 20 participating nations and over 140 aircraft from around the world, with approximately 4435 personnel participating.
This year’s exercise will be conducted primarily from RAAF Base Darwin and RAAF Base Tindal in the Northern Territory; with additional aircraft operating from RAAF Base Amberley, located near Ipswich in Queensland.
Australia’s biggest international air combat training activity, Exercise Pitch Black, will take to the skies over the Northern Territory from 12 July to 2 August.
With approximately 140 aircraft and over 4000 personnel from 20 nations participating, this year’s iteration of Exercise Pitch Black is the largest participation in its 43-year history.
This exercise exposes participants to complex scenarios whilst utilising some of the most advanced aircraft and battlespace systems, in one of the biggest areas of military training airspace in the world.
For the first time, aircraft and personnel from Philippines, Spain, Italy, and Papua New Guinea and embedded personnel from Fiji and Brunei will participate in the exercise.
In addition, aircraft from France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States; and embedded personnel from Canada and New Zealand will also participate.
Aircraft will operate from RAAF bases Darwin and Tindal in the Northern Territory, with additional tanker and transport aircraft at RAAF Base Amberley in Queensland.
“Exercise Pitch Black is our premier activity for international engagement, held every two years to build stronger ties with like-minded nations,” Exercise Director Air Commodore Peter Robinson said.
“Training with our partner nations throughout Exercise Pitch Black demonstrates our commitment to the shared value of sustaining peace and stability across the region.
“The Northern Territory is a big part of what makes this exercise a success, and allows visitors a unique opportunity to experience Australia.”
“Air Force will show its sincere thanks to our local community through the Mindil Beach flying display on 18 July, and the RAAF Base Darwin Open Day on 20 July.”
Air Force has a long history of conducting air exercises in the Northern Territory, including High-series of exercises in the 1960s; and Top-series in the early 1970s. Many of these involved integration with the Royal Air Force and Royal New Zealand Air Force.
Exercise Pitch Black was first held from RAAF Base Williamtown in New South Wales in June 1981 as a three-day air defence exercise, with ‘attacking’ aircraft flying from RAAF Bases Amberley and Richmond. It was held again from RAAF Base Williamtown in July 1982.
The name ‘Pitch Black’ is believed to be derived from the emphasis on night-time flying over large unpopulated areas during these early exercises, although the exercise was not conducted on moonless nights as some have suggested.
Exercise Pitch Black was held at RAAF Base Darwin for the first time over 9-13 May 1983, remaining as an air defence exercise that included RAAF Mirage III fighters and F-111C strike jets, with international participation from United States Air Force.
It was the first major RAAF exercise to be conducted in Darwin after Cyclone Tracy hit the city in 1974.
Since then, Exercise Pitch Black has been conducted in the Northern Territory (with the exception of 1986 and 2002), and held biennially since 1998 (with the exception of 2020, cancelled due to CoVID-19 pandemic).
Over the history of the exercise, more than 20 nations have travelled to Australia to participate in Exercise Pitch Black, along with two international contingents (NATO and Multinational MRTT Unit).
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