Europe enthuses Pitch Black 2024 exercise

Five European countries took part in the Pitch Black 2024 air force exercise from July 12 to August 2, the largest presence on the continent Down Under. France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom sent aircraft to the biennial exercise that focused on northern Australia.

Unfortunately, on July 24, after an Italian F-2000 Eurofighter crashed, fortunately without any fatalities, the European Air Force left with fewer aircraft than they had arrived.

Together, these five European countries provided a third of the aircraft participating in Pitch Black 2024. These include Rafale, AV-8, Eurofighter, F-35A and F-35B fighter jets, MRDT tankers, A400M transport aircraft and Italian E550 air forecasting aircraft.

France, Germany and Spain are jointly conducting a mission called Pacific Skies. The mission includes ambitious exercises in five locations: Alaska, Hawaii, Japan, Australia and India.

It is the 20th year that France has joined the field bloc and the Australian part was part of the Pegasus mission “which aims to strengthen operational readiness with France’s allies and allies in the Indo-Pacific, with military bases in New Caledonia and French Polynesia”.

This was stated by the French ambassador to Australia, Pierre-André Imbert Asian military research On the importance of training: “It is very important, so we have different trainings to make sure that we work together and are ready to help each other.”

Imbert said the Pegasus was “particularly complicated” because one faction moved east from France and the other west, and they both eventually married in Australia.

In line with the French Indo-Pacific strategy announced in 2018, Imbert added: “That’s why it’s so important for us to guarantee freedom of navigation to access the commons and to show that we are ready to get here and get here very quickly. Join our allies, defend our territories and our friends.”

Lieutenant Colonel Fabian Schröppe, commander of the Luftwaffe subdivision, said this was the second German deployment to Australia and explained: “This is the largest and most extensive programme and deployment the German Luftwaffe has ever undertaken. Our main objective is to develop and enhance our capabilities in the field of strategic deployments around the world.

Lt Col Scrope deployed five Eurofighters and two A400Ms and explained: “We want to gain a common understanding of how others train to enhance our operational capabilities, operate flexibly and succeed together more dynamically in the training environment. Day and night, air to ground, air to air.”

Exercise Pitch Block 2024 will involve more than 140 aircraft and 4,435 personnel from 20 countries.

By Gordon Arthur