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Pitch Black 2006 Air Operations Centre
11 August 2006

As part of exercise Pitch Black the RAAF are running an Air Operations Centre (AOC) from RAAF Base Glenbrook (near Sydney in the Blue Mountains) to plan and control the exercise air operations in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

The purpose of an AOC is to provide centralised planning and control of air operations within a theatre or area of operations. It provides the critical link to translate national and command-level guidance and strategy into daily tasking in the form of an Air Tasking Order (ATO).

The ATO normally tasks operations for a 24-hour execution period. The AOC does this through a systematic, cyclical six-stage process called the Air Tasking Cycle. Normally this process takes 96 hours from the start of planning through the end of execution.

The end result will be a demonstrated capability to plan and control coalition air operations from RAAF Glenbrook using procedures which are fully compatible with those of our coalition partners.

Representatives from France, Singapore, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States will participate in planning and executing operations from the AOC.

	20060807raaf8164330_6116 Headquarters Air Command Chief of Staff Air Commodore Steve Martin and other Air Command staff welcome BG Charles Sih, RSAF Chief of Air Staff and participants of the Exercise Pitch Black 2006 Foreign Observer Programme to RAAF Base Glenbrook (in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, NSW) on Monday the 7th of August. (Date taken: 07 August 2006) low-res | high-res
	20060807raaf8164330_6120 Base Commander, Wing Commander Brett Bishell welcomes the participants of the Exercise Pitch Black 2006 Foreign Observer Programme to RAAF Base Glenbrook (in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, NSW) on Monday the 7th of August. (Date taken: 07 August 2006) low-res | high-res
	20060807raaf8164330_6130 Pilot Officer Alesha Whitehead who has deployed from 114MCRU Darwin, in the busy Exercise Pitch Black 2006 Air Operations Centre (AOC) at RAAF Base Glenbrook. (Date taken: 07 August 2006) low-res | high-res