RAF medical personnel have been treating simulated blast and burn casualties alongside Royal Australian Air Force counterparts on Exercise Pitch Black, in training designed to prepare both services for future multinational operations, according to the Royal Air Force.
The RAF has deployed a specialist aeromedical evacuation team to Australia, working with international partners in casualty scenarios that test their ability to treat, stabilise and move seriously injured patients. One of the more demanding serials saw mixed RAF and RAAF teams respond to a simulated missile strike leaving multiple casualties with severe blast and burn injuries.
RAF Sergeant Victoria said the distinction between the two services fell away quickly. “We turned up to the medical treatment facility and quite quickly realised that it didn’t matter what uniform everyone was in,” she said. “Everyone just went into medical mode and it worked really well.”
She added that the differences that did emerge were often small ones. “It’s been interesting to see how we do things so differently, but also so similarly. It can be really nuanced things that you wouldn’t even realise might be a problem, such as the names of drugs.”
The training also focused on aeromedical evacuation, ensuring critically injured patients continue to receive care in transit, which requires delivering hospital-level treatment in considerably less forgiving conditions aboard military aircraft. RAF medics have also operated from partner nation aircraft during the exercise, including a French CN235.
RAAF Flying Officer Jessica Wiblin, a nurse from No. 1 Expeditionary Health Squadron, said: “There are definitely complexities treating a patient up there, things that you wouldn’t consider on the ground definitely come into play when you’re in the air.”
Warrant Officer James, commander of the deployed RAF aeromedical evacuation team, said the value of the exercise extended beyond clinical skills. “Simulating the operational patient care pathway has allowed us to exchange knowledge, compare procedures and strengthen the professional relationships that underpin multinational operations wherever they are required.”
Exercise Pitch Black is the Royal Australian Air Force’s largest air combat exercise, held biennially in the Northern Territory and flown from bases including RAAF Darwin and RAAF Tindal. It has grown steadily in scale and participation, drawing air forces from across Europe, Asia and the Indo-Pacific, with recent iterations involving thousands of personnel and well over a hundred aircraft.
