News Highlights
Continuing the series of military exercises with countries in the Indo-Pacific, the Indian Air Force (IAF) will join 16 other nations, including Quad partners, later this month for Exercise Pitch Black.
Exercise Pitch Black 2022
- Exercise Pitch Black is a biennial warfare exercise hosted by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).Â
- It is a significant International Engagement activity, with forces from various partner and allied nations aiming to develop and enhance military relationships at all levels.
- The exercise is normally held in Northern Australia, primarily at RAAF Bases Darwin and Tindal.Â
- This year’s participants
- Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, UAE, UK and the US.
- About 100 aircraft and 2,500 military personnel from 17 nations will arrive in the Northern Territory in two weeks to commence Exercise Pitch Black 2022
Exercise Pitch Black: 2018 last edition
- The Indian Air Force, for the first time, participated with fighter aircraft in Exercise Pitch Black 2018 in Australia
India-Australia Defence Relation
- Australia and India have a positive defence relationship, underpinned by the 2006 Memorandum on Defence Cooperation and the 2009 Joint Declaration on Security Co-operation.
- Following the 2014 agreement on the Bilateral Framework for Security Cooperation, the defence relationship has grown to include a range of forums for strategic dialogue and regular interactions.
- Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR)
- IFC-IOR in Gurugram is an Indian initiative to boost maritime security and response by exchanging information related to the ships in the Indian Ocean Region.
- Strategic Dialogue
- In June 2020, Australia and India decided to upgrade their Secretaries 2+2 dialogue (Defence and Foreign Affairs) to the Ministerial level.Â
- Ministers from the two countries will meet at least every two years to engage in the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.Â
- Â Exercise Malabar
- Australia participated in the MALABAR naval exercise in October 2020, joining India, the United States and Japan.
- The exercise brought together four regional defence partners and democracies, demonstrating a collective resolve to support an open and prosperous Indo-Pacific.Â
- Â AUSINDEX
- Commenced in 2015 as a bilateral maritime exercise, AUSINDEX has grown in complexity over the years.
- 3rd edition of the exercise, held in 2019 in the Bay of Bengal, included anti-submarine drills for the first time.
- Pitch Black
- Australia’s multilateral exercise involves air forces from several Australian allies and partner countries.
- A significant threshold of defence engagement was crossed when, for the first time, the Indian Air Force participated in Exercise Pitch Black in Darwin in 2018.Â
- Mutual Logistic Support Arrangement (MLSA) and Defence Science & Technology Implementing Arrangement (DSTIA)
- Australia and India concluded the Mutual Logistic Support Arrangement (MLSA) in 2020 during the virtual summit.Â
- The agreement facilitates more sophisticated operational cooperation, enabling increasingly complex military engagement and greater combined responsiveness to regional humanitarian disasters.Â
- Shared Military Platforms
- These include C-17 strategic transport aircraft, C-130 tactical transport aircraft, P-8 maritime reconnaissance aircraft, and Chinook heavy-lift helicopters.
Pic Courtesy: The Hindu
Content Source: The Hindu