Together with the Australian Armed Forces and other air and naval contingents from 18 nations including France, Germany, Korea, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, UK, US, Brunei, Canada, Fiji, New Zealand, the Marina Militaries' IT CSG and Italian Air Force detachment aircraft will participate to the biannual exercise Pitch Black, which provides the participants the opportunity to train together with international and allied partners on a vast Australia’s Northern Territory area with large force employment missions, operating mainly from three main air bases and for the first time with the participation of an aircraft carrier group, the IT CSG.
No information has been provided by the Italian MoD and Navy on the operational posture of the Cavour air group during the exercise, but Naval News understood that the AV-8B/TAV-8Bs will be launched and recovered in the second phase of the exercise from the aircraft carrier while the F-35Bs will operate from RAAF air bases.
The Indo-Pacific deployment will be key for Italian Navy to achieve the Sea-based Initial Operational Capability (IOC) of the 5th generation aircraft by the end of 2024 with the delivery to Naval Aviation of two additional F-35Bs.
In addition to the crews of Cavour and Alpino and later on Montecuccoli, the IT CSG also includes personnel from the San Marco Marine Brigade, the Underwater Operations Group (Gruppo Operativo Subacquei), and the Italian Air Force Weather Service.
