A simulated missile strike has left multiple casualties with severe blast and burn injuries. Within moments, British and Australian medics are working side by side to save lives. It is a scenario repeated throughout Exercise Pitch Black, where RAF and Royal Australian Air Force medical personnel have been training together to prepare for future multinational operations.
For RAF Sergeant Victoria, the lesson was immediate.
"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."
The RAF has deployed a specialist aeromedical evacuation team to Australia, working alongside international partners in realistic casualty scenarios that test their ability to treat, stabilise and move seriously injured patients.
One of the exercise's most demanding tasks saw mixed RAF and RAAF teams responding to casualties suffering blast and burn injuries. While the medical challenge was significant, so too was learning how another nation's medics work.
"It's been interesting to see how we do things so differently, but also so similarly," Sergeant Victoria said.
"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 while in transit. For RAF and RAAF medics, that means delivering hospital-level care in far less forgiving environments, including aboard military aircraft. The exercise has also seen RAF medics operate from partner nation aircraft, including a French CN235, reflecting the realities of coalition operations.
"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", said RAAF Flying Officer Jessica Wiblin, a nurse from No. 1 Expeditionary Health Squadron.
For Warrant Officer James, commander of the deployed RAF aeromedical evacuation team, the value of Pitch Black extends 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."
