Source: wechat official account: Bu Yi Dao has been authorized to reprint
Pen / Sword laugh & amp; Sister Tao Tao
The sky above the northern territory of Australia “has been densely covered with aircraft from all over the world”.
The “pitch black 2022” joint military exercise involving 17 countries, about 100 aircraft and nearly 2500 military personnel officially began on the 19th.
Normally, it is only a routine military exercise once every two years, but this year it has been rendered “different” by some countries.
The Australian Ministry of Defense said in the release that the “pitch black” military exercise shows that Australia attaches great importance to promoting close ties between the “Indo Pacific” region. Moreover, one of the top priorities of this year’s military exercise is the air refueling capability.
Who is the target of the drill of locking “Indo Pacific” and focusing on improving the flight distance of fighters?
And Germany, which made its debut in the “pitch black” military exercise this year.
In order to “defend values” and support “partners”, the German Air Force conducted the largest deployment in peacetime. Recalling that German warships went to the South China Sea last year, does Germany, which has always played a low-key role in the military security field since the end of World War II, want to change its course? Who is it targeting at?
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On the 19th local time, the first day of the military exercise, the website of the Australian Ministry of Defense issued a special notice announcing the official start of the “pitch black” military exercise in 2022. The first sentence of the notice highlighted the scale of the military exercise in an obviously exaggerated tone:
With the return of the “pitch black” military exercise, the sky above the northern territory of Australia “has been densely covered with aircraft from all over the world”.
The reason for saying “return” is that the military exercise has been interrupted for several years due to the epidemic.
Information shows that “pitch black” is a routine military exercise organized by the Australian Air Force. It was first started in 1981. At that time, it was mainly between different units within the Australian Air Force. However, since 1990, Singapore and other countries have joined in one after another, gradually becoming an international joint military exercise once every two years. Due to the impact of the epidemic, the exercise in 2018 was temporarily suspended.
In the form of military exercises, the red and blue teams are usually formed to conduct offensive and defensive confrontation under the simulated war environment.
In order to resume this military exercise this year, the Australian military has made full efforts to emphasize some of the “best in history” and “first time” of this military exercise.
Although the Royal Australian Air Force and some media, including the Australian media, have publicized it for a long time in advance, the Australian Ministry of Defense’s release still repeated the relevant information of the military exercise in considerable detail:
It lasts for three weeks, starting from the 19th of this month and ending on September 8th; The location is mainly at the Australian Air Force bases in Darwin and tyndal, and ambry base will also provide relevant support; About 100 aircraft and nearly 2500 military personnel from 17 countries in North America, Europe, Oceania and Asia participated in the exercise, including Germany, Japan and South Korea for the first time.
Speaking of the purpose, Brigadier General Tim Alsop of the Australian Air Force, who conducted this year’s military exercise, said that the resumption of the “pitch black” military exercise provided a “perfect opportunity” for the Royal Australian Air Force to strengthen cooperation with its allies and partners, which would help to enhance the “interoperability” between the armies of participating countries, and would “promote regional stability” while enhancing cooperation among all parties.
Subsequently, the familiar word “India Pacific” appeared in the release of the Australian Ministry of Defense:
Activities such as the “pitch black” military exercise show that Australia attaches great importance to regional security and promoting close ties between the “Indo Pacific” region.
Alsop also pointed out in particular that improving the air refueling capability of different participating countries will be a top priority in the “pitch black” military exercise in 2022, because “the air refueling capability is a multiplier of combat power and provides the necessary range for fighter planes”.
Australia has gathered many countries to hold military exercises to target “Indo Pacific” and focus on improving the flight distance of fighter planes. Who is the target? The answer is self-evident.
This immediately reminds people of the various “Indo Pacific” activities led by the United States and organized with the cooperation of Australia and other countries.
The most recent example is that from 25 to 27 July, Milly, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of staff, just went to Sydney to organize a “meeting of Indian Pacific defense ministers”. Although the level of officials participating in the meeting is not too high, similar to the 17 nation military exercise, the meeting also made a “great momentum”, claiming that 26 countries participated. In addition to Asia Pacific countries, countries in the Americas, Europe and Africa were all invited.
The Australian Ministry of Defense said at that time that the main purpose of the meeting was to promote the establishment of a “rules based Indo Pacific order”. Judging from the speeches made by the US side before and after the meeting and the actual topics, China has undoubtedly become the “protagonist who is not present”, and the pertinence can not be more obvious.
However, some experts analyzed at that time that the Asia Pacific countries reacted differently to the “Indo Pacific” layout of the United States aimed at suppressing China, and many countries were not positive.
After the ongoing “pitch black” military exercise once again dished out the name of “promoting stability in the Indo Pacific region” and was considered to be obviously aimed at China, foreign media immediately pointed out in the report that it was very difficult for the United States and Australia to organize a “joint response” with all the parties concerned.
For example, the report notes that at almost the same time as participating in the “pitch black” routine military exercise, the Royal Thai air force is holding the “yingji-2022” Air Force joint training with the Chinese side to maintain and enhance the friendly relations between the two air forces, improve the joint and cooperative capabilities of the two air forces, and strengthen the regional security and defense level.
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13 fighter planes, more than 200 soldiers, flying more than 20000 kilometers
In order to mobilize the German Air Force on the largest scale in peacetime, Germany “prepared for this for a long time”.
On the evening of August 16, five German Air Force “typhoon” fighters arrived in Singapore, the second stop of the trip.
The German air force immediately announced that it was only 20 hours and 22 minutes before the departure from Bavaria, which proved that Germany was capable of delivering troops to the Asia Pacific region within 24 hours.
This trip is not easy.
The first stop is Abu Dhabi. The pilots flew for seven hours at a time, that is, for seven hours, they had no rest or toilet time.
What shall I do? One pilot said, “someone used a catheter and I wore a diaper.”.
However, before continuing to fly from Abu Dhabi, one fighter plane had hydraulic system failure, and only five “typhoons” continued to go to Singapore.
However, air force commander inger gehartz still believes that for Germany, this trip to the Asia Pacific region is a historic mission, which sends “a clear signal that the German air force can rapidly deploy in the world”.
The air force commander said that this was a signal to Germany’s partners, not China.
Many scholars do not agree with this view: “the appearance of German military aircraft in the Asia Pacific region is closely related to the interests of the United States.” through the “pitch black 2022” military exercise, “it can help the United States to establish close cooperation between NATO and okus.”.
“The Anti China tendency of this operation is obvious.”
An anonymous person of the German air force was more direct. The daily mirror quoted him as saying that Germany’s participation in the military exercise was a signal to “China and other countries”.
Yes, if we look at more voices of gehartz and see the eye-catching word “values”, some things are self-evident: “the Indo Pacific region is very important to Germany. We share the same values with many partners in the region.”
German defense minister Lambrecht also pointed out that Germany’s current focus is still the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, “but we must also point our attention to other regions.”.
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Therefore, it is not surprising that whether the German military plane will be popular in the Asia Pacific region has become one of the concerns of many media.
After the “pitch black 2022” military exercise, the German air force formation will start its return flight on September 26. It is also planned to make a short visit from Singapore to South Korea and Japan from September 28 to 30. The daily mirror quoted an anonymous person as saying that when flying from Singapore to Japan and South Korea, the German air force formation will fly over the Taiwan Strait, but will use “Civil Aviation Routes” and “will not carry any weapons”.
However, by August 15, the wind seemed to have changed.
German Air Force Commander gerhartz said, “the South China Sea and Taiwan are obviously the points of divergence in the region.” we “will use civil air routes” and “hardly touch” the South China Sea.
Then, will the German military aircraft “fly over the Taiwan Strait”? Gehartz did not give a clear reply. He just specially emphasized that he did not think that Germany would “send any threat message to China” on the way to the “pitch black 2022” military exercise.
Can it be interpreted as that if I do something that I think is not a threat, you can’t regard it as a threat… Isn’t it a typical bandit logic.
We have seen this kind of German style of “showing kindness” and showing strength, saying two things and doing two things “last year.
Last December, the German warship “Bavaria” entered the South China Sea for the first time in 19 years.
The German side claimed that the warships would pass through the South China Sea “following the general trade route”, and said that the trip was based on maintaining “rule-based order”, “free navigation at sea” and “multilateralism”. It was a “major action” to implement its “Indo Pacific strategy”, reflect its international presence and echo the “European American alliance”.
When seeing off the Bavaria, German defense minister Karen Bauer said, “we are flying the flag for our values and interests together with our partners and allies.”.
Pandering to the United States under the banner of “values” and “Indo Pacific”, while hoping not to offend China on the face of it, it is very likely that the result that we want is not to please.
By contrast, Australia seems to have gone straight into the arms of the United States.
This “pitch black 2022” military exercise is considered by some media as “one of the numerous military efforts to strengthen and consolidate the (US) India Pacific Partnership”, and its more covert purpose is to “contain China’s dominant position in the India Pacific region”.
How can we contain it? Some media believe that the answer is “protect the Indo Pacific region with bombers”.
One of the clues they have captured is that on August 15, the US Pacific Air Force Command released several pictures of the training of the US Australian “bomber task force” on twitter.
Does Australia want to tie itself to the American chariot?
In an interview in Australia last month, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of staff Milly talked about whether Australia would join the United States in any war with China.
His message was clear: “if anything happens in the future, Australia and the United States will still stand side by side.”
What is “shoulder to shoulder”?
Some Australian media believe that this means military support. Canberra has to think twice. Is it worth bearing such consequences for Washington?