Pitch Black, Down Under

USAF airmen and aircraft are down under alongside eight other countries for Exercise Pitch Black 2016, a three-week exercise across two bases in Australia focused on offensive counter air and air support sorties. The Air Force contingent, which includes F-16Cs from the 14th Fighter Squadron at Misawa AB, Japan, and airmen with the 266th Range Support Squadron at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, deployed to RAAF Darwin for the exercise, according to Pacific Air Forces. The exercise includes about 2,500 personnel and 115 aircraft from the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Singapore, according to the Royal Australian Air Force. The exercise is the RAAF’s “most complex air combat air exercise, one that allows us to practice in a multinational simulated war environment,” RAAF Squadron Leader Deanna Nott said in a video announcing the exercise. The exercise began July 29 and ends Aug. 19. (See also: Back in Black from the Jan. 2015 issue of Air Force Magazine)