Exercise Pitch Black takes off
Louisa Rebgetz talks to Group Captain Mike Kitcher, the man in charge of Australia's largest and most complex aerial war games.
Source: 7.30 NT | Duration: 4min 3sec
LOUISA REBGETZ, PRESENTER: Many residents of the Top End have already noticed the roar of jets streaking across the sky. Aircraft from six nations have been flying in for Exercise Pitch Black - the air combat exercise that's held every two years. Group Captain Mike Kitcher is the man in charge of Australia's largest and most complex aerial war games. I caught up with him earlier today.
LOUISA REBGETZ: Mike Kitcher welcome to the program.
CAPTAIN MIKE KITCHER, EXERCISE DIRECTOR: My pleasure Louisa.
LOUISA REBGETZ: There are six nations involved in Pitch Black this year and Indonesia for the first time. Why have they decided now to be involved?
CAPTAIN MIKE KITCHER, EXERCISE DIRECTOR: I think the defence cooperation between the two countries is now reaching a new, you know reaching new heights and it's a logical progression for Indonesia to attend what is Australia's premiere combat exercise.
LOUISA REBGETZ: How significant is Indonesia's involvement?
CAPTAIN MIKE KITCHER, EXERCISE DIRECTOR: Well for the first time Indonesia's coming across with their fairly new SU30 aircraft. It's the first time these aircraft have been deployed on exercise outside Indonesia and it's certainly the first time Indonesia's deployed to Australia for an exercise on the scale of Pitch Black. So their involvement as well as the involvement of our other nations from our near region are, you know, crucial to a successful exercise.
LOUISA REBGETZ: How do you think Indonesia's involvement in these war games will be viewed by other countries in the region?
CAPTAIN MIKE KITCHER, EXERCISE DIRECTOR: Well I can't speak for them but I'd hope there'd be no issues with that. Pitch Black has always been a multi-national exercise where Australia invites all participants from our near region and this year we're lucky enough to have Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, America and New Zealand participating. We have invited Malaysia in the past and they have considered attending as well so with covering all the countries in our near region I don't believe there'll be any problems.
LOUISA REBGETZ: Can you give us an overview of how Pitch Black will roll out?
CAPTAIN MIKE KITCHER, EXERCISE DIRECTOR: We've got about a hundred aircraft or roughly a hundred aircraft and around 220 people participating in the exercise. Week one of the exercise which is next week will involve some smaller packages of aircraft going out and practising procedures and then week two and three we'll build to some fairly large packages involving 60 or 70 aircraft in each package with blue force pitted against red force I guess and the results will be obvious from there.
LOUISA REBGETZ: And what can Territorians expect in terms of the noise levels around town?
CAPTAIN MIKE KITCHER, EXERCISE DIRECTOR: The only noise the Darwin community should hear is actually the departing and recovering to the airfield. We're not conducting any of the, if you like, the engagements or the fighting over Darwin - they'll all be occurring more than 40 miles south of Darwin in the huge chunk of airspace we've got down there so whilst, you know, there will be elements of noise here there's no way we can operate fighter jets without that noise. It will be minimised as much as we possibly can.
LOUISA REBGETZ: And why aren't those marines that are now stationed here involved in this exercise?
CAPTAIN MIKE KITCHER, EXERCISE DIRECTOR: Well Pitch Black is largely an air combat exercise so we're involving the air combat arenas of the marines in Pitch Black, where as the marines that are down at Palmerston are largely working with our, with the Australian Army in that aspect.
LOUISA REBGETZ: Why is Darwin chosen to host this exercise?
CAPTAIN MIKE KITCHER, EXERCISE DIRECTOR: Dry weather, dry season in Darwin's not a bad place to be but seriously the airspace that's around Darwin is, it pretty much extends from Batchelor down to Elliot and it extends from Katherine across to Port Keats and further - it's one of the largest chunks of airspace that we have any, that there is anywhere in the world to conduct these types of exercises so the airspace is fantastic and also the location of Darwin it's if you like Darwin is closer to Singapore than it is down to Sydney or Melbourne so it makes it, it's a logical place to have a, what is a regional exercise where we host our south east Asian neighbours.
LOUISA REBGETZ: How does this exercise actually benefit the Northern Territory?
CAPTAIN MIKE KITCHER, EXERCISE DIRECTOR: Well we'll have over 2,000 people in the Northern Territory both at Darwin and Tindal over the next three to four weeks so that should obviously help the economy out somewhat and certainly we've got over a hundred aircraft here as well which will also benefit. So I think having the people here, whilst the noise is obviously an impact, I think the benefits are still definitely there.
LOUISA REBGETZ: Mike Kitcher thanks so much for talking with us.
CAPTAIN MIKE KITCHER, EXERCISE DIRECTOR: My pleasure.