Pitch Black 26 concluded on Friday, and the Indian Air Force closed its account of the exercise with a single line on social media, calling three weeks over northern Australia a mission accomplished. The contingent's Rafale fighters, flying the type at Pitch Black for the first time, had spent the run alongside partner air forces out of Royal Australian Air Force bases in the Northern Territory and Queensland, working through large scale, realistic combat scenarios built around day and night flying.

How Pitch Black 26 concludes over the Top End

Exercise Pitch Black 26 ran from 20 July to 7 August, and the Royal Australian Air Force confirmed the close in a release the same day. More than 2,500 personnel and around 100 aircraft from 21 partner nations took part, flying complex air combat missions across what the RAAF describes as one of the world's largest military training areas.

Flying was spread across RAAF Bases Darwin and Tindal in the Northern Territory and RAAF Base Amberley in Queensland.

Pitch Black is built as a large force employment exercise, splitting participants into a Red Air aggressor side and a Blue Air coalition force for missions that scale up in complexity through the run, a format the IAF has trained into since its first Pitch Black appearance in 2018.

A first for the Rafale, and for Japan's F-35A

This year's edition carried two debuts. The Indian Air Force flew the Rafale at Pitch Black for the first time, a break from three prior outings on the Su-30MKI in 2018, 2022 and 2024. The Japan Air Self-Defense Force brought its F-35A Lightning II to the exercise for the first time as well, a rare deployment of the type outside Japan's immediate neighbourhood, flying it alongside coalition fifth generation platforms already familiar with Pitch Black's aggressor scenarios. Air Commodore Matthew McCormack, the Exercise Commander, said the run had delivered strong operational and relationship building outcomes across the participating nations, building on lessons carried over from the 2024 edition.

The Indian Air Force's own account

The IAF's closing post framed the exercise as skies mastered and partnerships strengthened, a short public sign off rather than a formal statement.

It said operating side by side with partner air forces had lifted interoperability, passed on hard earned expertise between crews, and sharpened combat readiness under realistic conditions, with every mission delivering mutual gains in tactics, procedures and professional excellence. That framing echoes what the IAF has said after each of its earlier Pitch Black outings, though this was its first time making the point with the Rafale rather than the Su-30MKI. The post carried a photograph of a twin-seat Rafale on the flight line, credited to Western Air Command and others.


The post tagged the Royal Australian Air Force, India's Consulate General in Sydney, the Ministry of External Affairs, the Ministry of Defence's spokesperson, the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff, Army Headquarters and the Indian Navy, alongside the IAF's own careers handle, and closed on the hashtags PitchBlack26, Rafale, AirPower and StrongerTogether.

Three weeks, and the numbers behind them

Air Commodore McCormack also thanked the Northern Territory for hosting an exercise that has run since 1981 and been based in Darwin since 1983. More than 30,000 people turned out for the Mindil Beach Flying Display on 23 July, the RAAF Base Darwin Open Day on 1 August drew 25,500 visitors, and community and school programmes reached over 2,200 children through the period, figures the Royal Australian Air Force credited to the support of its international partners as much as its own personnel.

Where this leaves the IAF's Pitch Black run

The Rafale deployment sits inside a wider run of India Australia defence engagement that has picked up pace this year, from reciprocal port calls to staff talks between the two air forces, and Pitch Black has become the most visible marker of that pattern given the scale of the exercise and the media coverage it draws in both countries.

India's Ministry of Defence had confirmed the Rafale led contingent on 19 July, a day before flying opened, backed by a C-17 Globemaster III and an IL-78 tanker. The contingent's arrival built on the Rafale's earlier confirmation for the exercise, and the jets went on to fly night launches out of Darwin in the exercise's later stages, a first the Australian Defence Department itself called historic.

Pitch Black 26 concludes as the fourth edition the Indian Air Force has flown, after 2018, 2022 and 2024, with the next edition due in 2028. Singapore is set to keep its F-16 and F-15 fleets training out of Darwin in the meantime, per the RAAF closing release.