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Speaker 1: Well, we know that we've recently obviously had Exercise pitch

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Speaker 1: Black and there's been Exercise Kakadoo as well. But following

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Speaker 1: on from this, the Republic of Singapore Air Force are

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Speaker 1: going to be remaining at the R Double AF base

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Speaker 1: here in Darwen until the seventh of October as I

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Speaker 1: understand it. Now. Joining me on the line right now

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Speaker 1: is Commanding Officer of the R Double AF Darwen, Wing

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Speaker 1: Commander Jim Collison.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Jim.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie. Thanks for having me on the show again.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, great to have you on.

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Speaker 3: Now.

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Speaker 1: Jim, tell us a little bit more about what the

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Speaker 1: Singapore Air Force are doing in Darwin at the moment.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, Katie. So the Singapore Air Force have come over,

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Speaker 3: they participated in Pitch Black. They then followed on and

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Speaker 3: participated in Exercise Kakadoo as well with the Australian Royal

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Speaker 3: Australian Navy. They're maintaining presence here until about the seventh

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Speaker 3: eighth of October, and during that time they're participating in

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Speaker 3: Exercise Singer, which is a Navy bilateral exercise, and they're

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Speaker 3: also doing some unilateral exercising themselves out in the in

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Speaker 3: the vast and excellent airspace that we've got up here

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Speaker 3: in Daylhenn.

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Speaker 2: How good is that name? Singer Arroo?

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Speaker 1: I like it.

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Speaker 3: Yes, it's pretty good, isn't it?

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Speaker 1: It is?

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Speaker 2: So how many members have they got here at the moment.

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Speaker 3: At the moment, they've got a couple of one hundred Singaporeans,

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Speaker 3: They've got a couple of different types of jets, they've

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Speaker 3: got their fifteen and their sixteen aircraft here, and they've

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Speaker 3: also got one of their multi roll tankers here as well.

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Speaker 1: And is it the kind of thing, like, is it

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Speaker 1: the kind of exercise where you know, people living in

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Speaker 1: Darwin and Palmerston are going to see different aircraft in

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Speaker 1: the skies like we did with Exercise Pitch Black.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, a little bit, probably to a much diminished proportion

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Speaker 3: than they saw during Pitch Black. Obviously we had a

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Speaker 3: bunch of different nations and a stack of different aircraft

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Speaker 3: primarily during this phase. Now it's you know, the participation

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Speaker 3: rate has come down significantly since then, and we've got

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Speaker 3: the you know, the Singaporean Air Force particularly flying out

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Speaker 3: with the Royal Australian Navy and the Singaporean Navy who

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Speaker 3: are out in the in the area, and so mostly

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Speaker 3: it'll just be those unique aircraft to Singapore, those fifteens

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Speaker 3: and those are sixteams.

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Speaker 1: Yeah right, and so will there I guess taking into

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Speaker 1: account that it sounds as though it's on the water

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Speaker 1: and also in the air, will there be much that

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Speaker 1: you know that Territorians can see when it comes to

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Speaker 1: the waters?

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Speaker 3: Look, probably not. They might see some of the Singaporean

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Speaker 3: vessels that have pulled into port down there in town,

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Speaker 3: but I'll probably leave that commentary more to her to

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Speaker 3: Navy can pat this. But yeah, definitely when those Singaporean

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Speaker 3: vessels came into to port at the end of Kakadu

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Speaker 3: and they probably will see potentially some of those vessels

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Speaker 3: coming at the end of Singareoo as well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah right, And Jim is most of the you know,

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Speaker 1: most of those aircraft departures and things. Are they going

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Speaker 1: to be happening in daytime hours with the exercise.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. So we've narrowed down that window significantly since

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Speaker 3: the end of Pitch Black and Diamond Storm and the

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Speaker 3: other exercises that we've had during the year. It'll be

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Speaker 3: a small morning wave mostly from about eight o'clock to

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Speaker 3: midday in the morning and then one thirty to four

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Speaker 3: thirty in the afternoon, they won't be too many aircraft flying,

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Speaker 3: so a significant reduction since Pitchblack. Yeah, and I think

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Speaker 3: that's that's pretty important. But I mean, ultimately, this is

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Speaker 3: great training for the Singaporeans. It's excellent for our interoperability,

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Speaker 3: and it's essential to build all of that relationship with

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Speaker 3: those foreign nations during this exercise period.

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Speaker 1: Well, Jim, it's always good to catch up and always

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Speaker 1: good to find out what is going on around the place.

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Speaker 1: It seems like it's been such a busy time for

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Speaker 1: our for our air force.

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Speaker 3: It sure has. You know, there's been a I guess

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Speaker 3: you know, all of these exercises have probably been conducted

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Speaker 3: in the past. We have shifted where which Black has

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Speaker 3: seated this year mainly to maintain some sort of distance

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Speaker 3: between the school holiday period around the middle of the year,

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Speaker 3: so Pitch Black was sitting a little bit later this year.

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Speaker 3: But I think primarily it probably feels like it's been

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Speaker 3: a super intense period because we haven't done this thing

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Speaker 3: for four years due to the delays and cancelations that

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Speaker 3: we had due to COVID in twenty twenty.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a very good point.

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Speaker 1: Well, Jim Collison, the Commanding Officer of THEAAF Darwin, It's

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Speaker 1: always good to catch up with you.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 3: Oh thanks for having me on again, Katie, great to

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Speaker 3: talk to you too.

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Speaker 2: Thank you