Soaring into action with flares and acrobatic moves, dozens of fighter jets from Singapore to Spain are flying over northern Australia in a show of strength.
The Royal Australian Air Force's premier air combat exercise, Exercise Pitch Black, is taking place across three weeks until August 7, involving more than 2500 personnel from 21 nations.
Darwin has played host to the war games since 1983 and is featuring Japanese F-35 jets and Indonesian T-50I Golden Eagle jets for the first time.
Pitch Black 2026 includes aircraft from the United States, Japan, India, Singapore, France, Germany, Indonesia and Spain.
Embedded personnel from Pacific neighbours Fiji and Papua New Guinea are taking part alongside those from as far as Finland and Sweden.
Air Commodore Matthew McCormack, Exercise Commander of Pitch Black 2026, emphasised the importance of the high-end training activity.
"It's where we plan together, fight together and learn together through realistic and complex training scenarios," he said.
"It strengthens relationships among our partners and allies through integration, and demonstrates our shared commitment to a peaceful and prosperous region."
Peter Layton, a retired RAAF group captain and visiting fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute, said this year's training was particularly interesting as it involved most nations from the Indo-Pacific region.
"China is noticeable by its absence," Dr Layton told AAP.
"It's sort of suggesting without saying - suggesting without actually formally building an alliance - that these nations in a crisis might stand together."
His comments come weeks after China fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean from a nuclear-powered submarine for the first time.
The missile launch happened hours after Australia and Fiji inked a mutual defence pact.
Dr Layton said Australia's investment in building weapons ranges had paid off with Pitch Black growing into a major regional exercise.
"Australia has lots of free airspace," he said
"In Europe, America or Asia you can't practice military aviation as easily, whereas in the Northern Territory there's bucketloads of airspace."
