Which exercise hosted up to 4000 personnel with 140 aircraft from around the globe and aimed to build strong relationships?

• A. Rim-of-the-Pacific
• B. Capricorn Sunset
• C. Pitch Black 2018
• D. Diamond Storm 2019

Answer: (C)

The gist is a large, multinational air-focused exercise designed to build strong relationships and boost interoperability among participating air forces. Pitch Black 2018 fits this perfectly. It’s Australia’s major biennial air power exercise that gathers air forces from around the world to practice joint air operations, command and control, and coordination in realistic scenarios. In 2018 it involved about 4000 personnel and around 140 aircraft, all with the explicit aim of strengthening partnerships and improving how different nations’ air forces work together.

Other exercises tend to emphasize different scales or focuses. Rim of the Pacific is a vast maritime exercise with a heavy naval emphasis and much larger overall scope, whereas Diamond Storm and Capricorn Sunset involve smaller, more regional or Australia-led activities. That combination of multinational participation, large scale, and clear emphasis on relationship-building makes Pitch Black 2018 the best match.