Summary and Key Points: Australia is hosting its largest modern air exercise, Exercise Pitch Black, featuring over 100 combat aircraft from multiple countries, including U.S. F-22 Raptor stealth fighters and V-22 Osprey helicopters.
-This historic exercise involves advanced air combat capabilities, air-to-air refueling, intelligence surveillance, reconnaissance, and airlift operations. The F-22 Raptor, a fifth-generation stealth fighter, and the V-22 Osprey, a versatile transport helicopter, are key assets in this exercise.
-Despite the Osprey’s troubled history, its operational readiness is crucial for U.S. military success in the Indo-Pacific region.
The largest modern air exercise in the history of the Australian military will feature two of the most important U.S. combat aircraft.
In the next weeks, U.S. F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets and V-22 Osprey helicopters will be operating alongside the Australian military and several other countries in the largest modern air exercise down under.
Exercise Pitch Black will involve over 100 combat aircraft from several countries, including the U.S., Italy, Spain, and the Philippines.
“This will be the biggest single air exercise that we have hosted in the modern Air Force, with approximately 140 aircraft and more than 4400 personnel participating,” Australian Air Commodore Peter Robinson stated in a press release.
According to the Royal Australian Air Force, Exercise Pitch Black will involve “the most advanced air combat capabilities in the world,” and include several mission sets such as air combat, air-to-air refueling, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance, and airlift during day and night.
“The size of this exercise will enable cooperation that will go beyond what was possible at any previous Pitch Black, from engaging with our immediate regional partners through to welcoming allies and partners from around the globe,” Robinson said in the statement.
The F-22 Raptor is a fifth-generation stealth fighter jet and the best air superiority aircraft in the skies today. To be sure, aircraft like the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jet are more advanced but don’t specialize specifically in air superiority, or winning the air battle against enemy aircraft.
Although the U.S. Air Force is working to replace the F-22 Raptor, which has been flying since 2005 and is facing maintenance issues because the production line is closed, the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) sixth-generation stealth fighter jet is still about a decade out from being operational.
As such, the F-22 Raptor remains the tip of the spear of American air power in the Indo-Pacific. In a potential conflict near-peer conflict with China, the F-22 Raptor would play an important role in establishing air superiority, clearing the skies of Chinese fighter jets and allowing other U.S. and friendly aircraft to focus on ground targets.
The V-22 Osprey is another important chapter for U.S. airpower in the Indo-Pacific. A transport helicopter, the V-22 Osprey can ferry a large number of troops during assaults. It can carry up to 32 fully-equipped Marines or special operators or thousands of pounds of ammunition and weapons. The U.S. Marine Corps uses hundreds of V-22 Ospreys, while the aircraft is also popular in the U.S. special operations community.
However, the tiltrotor aircraft has had a very troubled history that is full of accidents. Indeed, 50 American service members have been killed in accidents involving different versions of the V-22 Osprey, with 20 of them getting killed in the past couple of years. This has led to repeated emergency groundings of the aircraft. However, as of July, the V-22 Osprey is cleared for operations. A “healthy” V-22 Osprey is paramount for U.S. military success in the vast Indo-Pacific area of operations.
Stavros Atlamazoglou is a seasoned defense journalist specializing in special operations and a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ). He holds a BA from the Johns Hopkins University and an MA from the Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His work has been featured in Business Insider, Sandboxx, and SOFREP.
All images are Creative Commons.
