Spotting from Amberley Air Force base

With the military exercise Pitch Black wrapping up in Darwin on Friday, I decided to try my luck at Amberley yesterday. I left home early for the 40-minute drive and, within minutes of arriving, caught the first aircraft, a USAF Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker. Over the next two hours, more aircraft departed Amberley. Unfortunately, the weather turned, with heavy rain and very strong cold winds setting in, so I called it a day.

UNITED STATES AIR FORCE BOEING KC 135R STRATOTANKER
58-0104 (MSN 17849)

ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE AIRBUS A330-200 MRTT 
A39-006 (MSN 892) 
EX QANTAS AIRCRAFT VH-EBH 

UNITED STATES AIR FORCE BOEING KC 135T STRATOTANKER
60-0342 (MSN 18117)

UNITED KINGDOM ROYAL AIR FORCE AIRBUS KC3 VOYAGER
ZZ332 (MSN 1275)

SPAIN AIR FORCE AIRBUS A330-202 MRTT
TK.24-03 (MSN 1700)

ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE BOEING C-17A GLOBEMASTER III
A41-209 (MSN 50185)

SPAIN AIR FORCE AIRBUS A330-202 MRTT
TK.24-02 (MSN 1710)

For those who don't know, Exercise Pitch Black is one of the most impressive military aviation exercises held in Australia, and Darwin is really the heart of it. The 2026 exercise has just finished, running from the 20th of July to the 7th of August 2026.

Pitch Black is the Royal Australian Air Force's major biennial multinational air-combat exercise. It started in 1981 as a relatively small air-defence exercise but has grown enormously.

The name "Pitch Black" is believed to come from the exercise's original emphasis on night-time flying over the vast, sparsely populated areas of northern Australia.

The scale today is remarkable:

• Around 100 aircraft attended
• About 2,500 personnel
• 21 participating nations
• Flying primarily from RAAF Base Darwin and RAAF Base Tindal
• RAAF Base Amberley in Queensland also provides important tanker and logistical support.

The 2026 participants included aircraft and personnel from countries including:

• 🇦🇺 Australia
• 🇺🇸 United States
• 🇯🇵 Japan
• 🇮🇩 Indonesia
• 🇵🇭 Philippines
• 🇰🇷 South Korea
• 🇮🇳 India
• 🇸🇬 Singapore
• 🇹🇭 Thailand
• 🇩🇪 Germany
• 🇫🇷 France
• 🇪🇸 Spain
• 🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea

There were also personnel from the UK, New Zealand, Canada, Malaysia, Brunei, Fiji, Finland and Sweden.

The 2026 deployment included aircraft such as:

• 🇦🇺 F/A-18F Super Hornet
• 🇦🇺 F-35A Lightning II
• 🇦🇺 EA-18G Growler
• 🇦🇺 KC-30A MRTT
• 🇺🇸 US military aircraft
• 🇯🇵 F-35A Lightning II — making its Pitch-Black debut
• 🇰🇷 F-16 Fighting Falcons
• 🇹🇭 Thai F-16s
• 🇵🇭 Philippine FA-50PH Golden Eagles
• 🇮🇩 Indonesian T-50I Golden Eagles
• 🇩🇪 Eurofighter Typhoons
• 🇩🇪 A400M Atlas