Exercise Pitch Black 2026

Exercise Pitch Black returns to the Top End from 20 July to 7 August, creating an opportunity for over 100 aircraft and personnel from 19 allied and partner nations to exercise together, and strengthen regional and global interoperability.

This is the Royal Australian Air Force’s largest international exercise featuring complex, combat-like scenarios across one of the largest military training areas in the world over a three-week period.

Alongside the exercise the Northern Territory community will once again have the opportunity to see participating aircraft in the air and on the ground, and meet military personnel from Brunei, Canada, Fiji, Finland, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

These opportunities will be at the two free community events, starting with the Mindil Beach Flying Display on Thursday 23 July, followed by the RAAF Darwin Open Day on Saturday 1 August.

The Mindil Beach Flying Display on Thursday 23 July is on from 5pm to 6:30pm, and is a free, non-ticketed community event.

The RAAF Darwin Open Day on Saturday 1 August is also a free community event with pre-booked tickets required for event entry and park-and-ride bus transfer. Tickets must be pre-booked through TryBooking, noting no tickets will be available at the event.

History

Air Force has a long history of conducting air exercises in the Northern Territory, including the High-series of exercises in the 1960s and the Top-series in the early 1970s. Many of these involved integration with the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force and the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

Exercise Pitch Black was first held from RAAF Base Williamtown in New South Wales in June 1981 as a 3-day air defence exercise with ‘attacking’ aircraft flying from RAAF Bases Amberley and Richmond. It was held there again in July 1982.

The name ‘Pitch Black’ is believed to refer to 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. It included RAAF Mirage III fighters and F-111C strike jets as well as international participation from the 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, with the exception of 1986 and 2002, Exercise Pitch Black has been conducted in the Northern Territory. It has been held biennially since 1988 with the exception of 2020, when it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the exercise’s history, more than 20 nations have travelled to Australia to participate along with two international contingents (NATO and Multinational MRTT Unit).