The strategy focuses on strengthening Australia’s capacity to protect and defend Australia and its national interests within an increasingly contested and uncertain environment.

The inaugural National Defence Strategy 2024 identified that Australia’s strategic environment was deteriorating and that the nation faced the most challenging circumstances since the Second World War. It set out, for the first time, the concept of National Defence and adopted the Strategy of Denial as the cornerstone of defence planning.

The 2026 Strategy builds on these foundations by:

1. increasing efforts to develop greater self-reliance
2. prioritising capability acquisition and sustainment plans, drawing on lessons learned from the war in Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East
3. strengthening the resilience of Australia’s sovereign defence industrial base and building stronger, more diverse international industrial partnerships
4. improving national civil preparedness and resilience to help Australia manage and recover from regional or global disruption
5. increasing coordination with regional partners to strengthen and preserve the global rules based order. 

The strategy is provided with a budget and an integrated investment program.