Above Darwin and Tindal, close to 100 international fighter jets and support aircraft are converging in some of the busiest military airspace in the world.
Exercise Pitch Black, the Royal Australian Air Force’s biennial capstone international air combat exercise, is running from July 20 to August 7, bringing 2500 personnel from 21 nations to one of the world’s largest exercise areas.
While the headlines will go to the F-35A Lightning II, Rafales and Typhoons, the exercise’s real test of readiness is happening on the ground in the air traffic control tower.
Every flight flown, every offensive and defensive counter-air scenario conducted depends on a small team of air traffic controllers sequencing aircraft with different training standards, different radio procedures and different operating doctrines.
Get it right and the exercise looks seamless.
For Squadron Leader Stephanie Gartshore, the flight commander for 452 Squadron in Darwin, Exercise Pitch Black adds another layer of coordination.
“During the exercise we’re dealing with a significant number of extra aircraft on top of what we usually process in and out of Darwin,” Squadron Leader Gartshore said.
“Outside the exercise period, we can see numbers between 200 and 300 aircraft a day. During Exercise Pitch Black that increases up to 400 aircraft a day.”
That density of traffic is precisely what makes the air traffic controller role so exacting.
‘Outside the exercise period, we can see numbers between 200 and 300 aircraft a day. During Exercise Pitch Black that increases up to 400 aircraft a day.’
With more than 2500 personnel and aircrews from allied nations operating together, interoperability is not an abstract policy goal. It plays out in real time, in the gap between a controller’s instruction and a pilot’s response.
“In preparation, we do a number of simulated exercises to ensure that all of our controllers are well-prepared for the variation in procedures that we’re likely to see,” Squadron Leader Gartshore said.
“We also ensure that all of the flight participants are briefed ahead of the exercise windows, so that everyone is operating off the same page.
“The planning and processes that go into creating an exercise like this begin well in advance to ensure we can facilitate what everyone needs out of Darwin, as well as getting after-the-exercise objectives.”
As Exercise Pitch Black enters its final stretch, the aircraft that flew in formation over the Top End will be remembered. So too should the operators who made sure they never collided in the process.
Air Force air traffic controllers are responsible for all Air Force aircraft as well as civilian air traffic at the airfields where military Air Traffic Control is provided.
They can be called upon to control the airspace above a battlefield, over land or the sea, and air traffic controllers often work extensively with the Army and Navy, including while operating from Navy ships.
