Major
exercise hits Fever Pitch
By
Andrew Stackpool
Pitch
Black News
(MPEG video 9.67 MB)
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After-flight
checks on an F/A-18 after landing at RAAF Base Darwin to
participate in Exercise Pitch Black 04.
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Photo
by CPL Darren Hilder
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SEVENTY-five
aircraft and more than 1700 personnel from Australia, Singapore,
Thailand and France have pitched in for the Air Force’s largest
exercise.
They are participating in Exercise Pitch Black 04, featuring high
complexity air combat activity in the skies surrounding RAAF Bases
Darwin and Tindal from July 19 to August 5. In support are Air
Force personnel from Air Combat Group, Surveillance and Response
Group, Combat Support Group and Air Lift Group.
Other personnel are at the Combined Air Operations Centre at RAAF
Base Glenbrook, which will stand up for the first time.
Exercise Predators Gallop, involving Army’s 1 Brigade, and Navy’s
Principle Warfare Officers’ training course – supported by Hawks
from No. 79 Squadron – are being held in the Top End at the same
time as Pitch Black. All military flying is being tasked out
of Air Command to ensure integration, airspace management and
safety, while some Pitch Black aircraft are working with 1BDE’s
forward air controllers.
The RAF and a US Marine Corps Hornet squadron are absent from
Pitch Black because of operational reasons, but a number of countries
are attending as observers. French Air Force Mirage 2000-5 fighters and KC-135 refueller aircraft and about 80 French Air Force
personnel made an auspicious landing at RAAF Base Darwin on July
14, Bastille Day.
The French are involved in Pitch Black for the first time, as
is the Royal Thai Air Force, which has sent F-16 Fighting Falcons.
From
Page 1 Singapore is represented by F-16s, KC-135s, an E2 Hawkeye
Tactical Warning and Control aircraft and a IHawk ground defence
SAM battery.
Opening the exercise on July 18, CAF Air Marshal Angus Houston
welcomed the visitors and stressed the importance of Pitch Black,
Air Force’s biennial major exercise. “Exercise Pitch Black is
of great importance to Australia not only because of the high
complexity air combat training opportunities it provides but also
because of the invaluable opportunity it gives us to strengthen
ties with our international friends,” AIRMSHL Houston said.
“The exercise has provided us a range of ‘firsts’, which have
provided many challenges. I am pleased with the enthusiasm, flexibility, professionalism and above all good humour with which
all these challenges have been met.”
Coming in the slipstream of Exercise Aces North and a series of
other major exercises already held this year, Pitch Black is testing
Air Force’s procedures for deploying away from home bases and
its interoperability with other air forces. Some 325 Army personnel
are also participating, mainly from the Adelaide based 16th Air
Defence Regiment, which has deployed more than 200 vehicles, Rapier
and RBS-70 surface-to-air missile systems and some radars.
First
priorities
By
Andrew Stackpool
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WGCDR
Doug Phelan, Base Commander at Darwin, greets Republic of
Singapore Air Force pilot MAJ Vincent Leong after the Singaporeans
touched down for Exercise Pitch Black.
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Photo
by CPL Darren Hilder
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Aircraft
technician CPL Tim Widdon undertakes work on a Hornet at
Darwin.
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Photos
by CPL Darren Hilder
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A
Republic of Singapore Air Force pilot readies his F16 Falcon
for take off.
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EXERCISE
Pitch Black 04 is an exercise of firsts, some of which represent
a major shift in the way Air Force practises aerial combat.
It is the first time an operational layer has been injected into
the exercise and the first time that Pitch Black is being run
remotely from the Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC), under
the overall command and control of Air Commodore John Quaife,
the Joint Force Air Component Commander at HQAC.
The CAOC and JFACC roles only stood up at the beginning of the
year. “Pitch Black is the culmination of our entire training program.
By controlling the exercise in this way and by requiring people
to unroll the strategic level and think at the operational layer
as well as the tactical situation we will provide a healthy dose
of realism and complexity that may be missing from our training
programs but which operates in the real world,” AIRCDRE Quaife
said.
“We were faced with a significant challenge as there was no template
on which to build the exercise and this meant a lot of work from
scratch. Nevertheless, this is a major advance and everybody benefits.”
Other firsts are the shift in emphasis from the classic concept
of air defence, which has shaped previous Pitch Black exercises,
to offensive counter air and offensive air support and the decision
to permit full free play to both sides.
This stems from the lessons learned during Pitch Black 02. AIRCDRE
Quaife said the Pitch Black series began life as a “classic” Air
Defence Exercise (ADEX) that could be scripted to provide specific outcomes.
Also, the ADEX concept increasingly failed to factor in the increasingly
sophisticated role of offensive air combat. “A recommendation
from PB02 was that future Pitch Blacks be dedicated to offensive
air and that defensive air be shifted to another format,” he said.
“This will occur under a new exercise program known as the East
Coast ADEX (ECADEX), which will be much smaller than Pitch Black.”
ECADEX will be held on alternate years to Pitch Black.
The infusion of full free play, coupled with the ability to permanently
remove “killed” aircraft, is a flow-on from both this process
and PB02.
“By taking red and blue off the script we can truly exercise the
front end in the CAOC process,” AIRCDRE Quaife said.
“Red will be fully free play but the CAOC will set the blue freeplay
levels and they will be required to be more responsive.
People will be required to think more about how to achieve their
efforts as the strategy unrolls.”
Crash
no mirage
Well exercised
