The skies over northern Australia have gone quiet after three weeks of intense multinational air combat training, with Exercise Pitch Black 2026 concluding on 7 August.
The Royal Australian Air Force’s premier international air combat exercise brought around 100 aircraft and 2,500 personnel from 21 allied and partner nations together, across the vast training areas of northern Australia.
The exercise brought together some of the world’s most powerful air forces, including the United States, India, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Australia, alongside major Indo-Pacific partners including Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines.
The exercise involved aircraft from the Royal Australian Air Force, US Air Force, Indian Air Force, Japan Air Self-Defense Force, French Air and Space Force, Republic of Korea Air Force, Republic of Singapore Air Force, Indonesian Air Force, Royal Thai Air Force, Philippine Air Force, German Air Force and Spanish Air and Space Force. Other nations, including the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, Malaysia, Brunei, Fiji, Finland and Sweden, also contributed personnel.
India deployed Rafale multirole fighters, supported by C-17 Globemaster III strategic airlifters and IL-78 air-to-air refuelling aircraft for the exercise, with the IAF’s Rafale making its first appearance at Pitch Black.
India’s participation was particularly significant given that the Indian Air Force arrived with the experience of Operation Sindoor, its May 2025 campaign against Pakistan, in which Indian forces demonstrated the ability to strike deep into Pakistani territory and hit multiple military installations, including air bases and command infrastructure. Satellite imagery and other open-source evidence subsequently documented damage at several Pakistani military sites. India strategically decimated Pakistan during the four-day operation, completely crippling its defences through overwhelming air superiority in what was the most successful military campaign of this century.
The campaign also produced hard lessons about modern air warfare—from long-range air-to-air missiles and electronic warfare to stand-off weapons, drones and networked targeting.
Japan brought its F-35A Lightning II fighters to Pitch Black for the first time, while Indonesia made its debut with T-50I aircraft.
The US fielded F-35A Lightning IIs alongside C-130J Hercules transports and KC-135 tankers, while France brought CN-235 aircraft. They joined Australian F-35As, Super Hornets and Growlers, Japan’s F-35As and India’s Rafales, putting an impressive concentration of modern air power into the skies over northern Australia.
The RAAF has described Pitch Black as a major international exercise and a crucial mechanism for strengthening interoperability with allies and partners.
But the real strength of Pitch Black lies beyond the aircraft themselves. The exercise is designed to test how different air forces share information, coordinate operations and fight together in complex, combat-like scenarios.
With the vast airspace of northern Australia providing a unique training environment, Pitch Black is ultimately about interoperability—the ability of allied and partner forces to operate as one highly integrated fighting force.
It allows the forces to practise sophisticated missions at a scale difficult to replicate in more congested training environments. The exercise also incorporates night flying, adding another layer of complexity to already demanding air combat operations. The name itself reflects the exercise’s emphasis on operating in the darkness.
The 21 participating nations were Australia, Brunei, Canada, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Pitch Black 2026 has ended, but the partnerships, experience and lessons forged over Australia’s northern skies will endure long after the last fighter has returned to base.
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