The RAAF Bases at Tindal and Darwin will be central to the exercise.

Day and night missions will be flown again over three weeks from the Tindal RAAF Base as part of Exercise Pitch Black.

The exercise is a large force employment biennial exercise conducted from RAAF Bases Darwin and Tindal, using training ranges in the Northern Territory.

Pitch Black involves up to 2500 personnel and more than 100 aircraft from around the globe.

Pitch Black 18 will involve participants from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and the United States.

This year will mark the first involvement of new RAAF aircraft such as the E/A-18G Growler and C-27J Spartan.

The exercise will include day and night flying missions on week days from today.

Exercise Pitch Black is a biennial three week multi-national large force employment exercise.

Exercise Pitch Black features a range of realistic, simulated threats which can be found in a modern battle-space environment and is an opportunity to test and improve our force integration, utilising one of the largest training airspace areas in the world — Bradshaw Field Training Area and Delamere Air Weapons Range.

Activities such as Exercise Pitch Black recognises the strong relationship Australia has with its participant nations and the high value it places on regional security and fostering closer ties throughout the Asia Pacific region.