The German Air Force is set to take part in Australia’s Exercise Pitch Black war games for the first time, after Germany opted to procure the F35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) to replace the ageing Tornado aircraft, a platform that saw active service during the Bosnian conflict.
The Department of Defence says the Luftwaffe has despatched six Eurofighter Typhoons, three A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transports, an A400M transport aircraft and 200 personnel to Australia.
“The Indo-Pacific is of great importance to Germany. We share the same values with many partners in this region,” chief of the German Air Force lieutenant general Ingo Gerhartz said.
“Defending those values in case of a war emergency and being able to support our partners is something that needs to be practised.”
The participation of Germany in Pitch Black for the first time comes against a backdrop of growing instability and hot conflict in central Europe as Russia attempts by force to stop Ukraine from leaving Russia’s sphere of influence.
Australia’s current use of the F35 is of keen interest to the Luftwaffe, especially how the fighter platform is integrated with other systems.
“The F-35 aircraft will further expand the broad spectrum of our capabilities. Since the Royal Australian Air Force is already flying this combat aircraft, we will be able to learn from them as well,” Gerhartz said.
According to Defence, Gerhartz is personally piloting a Eurofighter during exercises Pitch Black and Kakadu before heading to Japan and South Korea for visits after the antipodean war games.
The flexing of regional muscle by Germany in what is dubbed ‘Rapid Pacific Deployment’ comes as NATO looks to showcase its regional weight amidst increased tensions between the West, China and Russia.
A significant recent upgrade to Australia’s F35s has been the delivery of new bomb packs for the JSF that offer a fourfold increase in payload thanks to lighter, more powerful explosives.
Known as the GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bomb, Increment 1 (SDB1), the new GPS-guided munitions up the RAAF’s capability because the bombs can be tucked away inside the fighter’s internal weapons bay, thus reducing the aircraft’s radar signature and ability to be detected.
The small bombs are a significant step up from traditional JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) that, although guided, have delivery limitations.
“With JDAMs you’ve got to be very close to the target to engage it, but because of the wings on SDB1, a single F-35A can engage up to eight separate targets from outside the range they can defend against,” wing commander Simon Bird, chief engineer at Aerospace Explosive Ordnance Systems Program Office (AEOSPO) – Explosive Materiel Branch said.
“What’s more, because an SDB1 is carried internally, the F-35A can remain low observable and will not be affected by any extra drag from carrying eight bombs.”
Bird said that while the new munitions were specifically designed to penetrate harder targets, they can also “fuse above ground to create area effects.”
The delivery of the new small smart bombs represents a milestone for the RAAF because it matches modern munitions with Australia’s most recent fighter aircraft, a development the Air Force is spruiking as a more efficient way of taking out targets.
“You can test the SDB1 without opening the box; you can test them before they’re even shipped to the base you’re going to operate from,” Bird said.
“This weapon comes fully assembled; you basically take it out of the box and load it.”
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