This paper argues Australian Defence Force (ADF) and its strategic outlook are in crisis and urgent action is needed. It outlines key challenges that the Department of Defence needs to address to become more relevant to our current circumstances, including:

• addressing the ADF’s inability to recruit and retain the people it needs
• an addiction to ever more complex systems that cost too much and take too long to design and deliver
• learning how to deliver new equipment in relevant timeframes
• generating the mass needed to compete in modern warfare.

Key recommendations

• Urgently reopen Australia’s embassy in Kyiv and seek Ukraine’s permission to locate a defence industry team at the embassy to build our understanding of the war.
• The next government direct Parliament’s Joint Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee to convene a major inquiry into the lessons from recent conflicts.
• Establish an initial $1 billion annual Rapid Acquisition Fund in the Defence budget getting Australian small and medium-sized enterprises to produce key ‘consumables’ of war.
• Restore air and missile defence procurement plans that were cut in the 2024 National Defence Strategy. 
• Direct Defence to publicly report, no later than 100 days after the election, on the capability impact of deferrals, removals and reductions in the National Defence Strategy. 
• Fix the ADF workforce crisis by convening a high level group of eminent Australians to develop new ways to grow and sustain the ADF, enlisting support from the broader community.