Australian Maritime Defence strategy released

UNSW Canberra’s Naval Studies Group has launched a new report that guides Australia’s maritime interests over the next decade and aims to fill a significant gap in the nation’s defensive strategy.

Edited by Vice Admiral Peter Jones (Retd) and Jennifer Parker, the publication brings together leading scholars and practitioners to propose a coherent national maritime strategy aligned with Australia’s strategic, economic, and industrial realities out to 2035. Along the way it identifies some potential shortfalls and gaps and offers some measures to address them.

“Australia’s security and prosperity depends on the sea,” Ms Parker said.

“Over the last decade, successive Commonwealth governments have affirmed the centrality of maritime defence capabilities to Australia’s national security.

“Many initiatives and investments have flowed. However, another key step moving forward should be an integrated maritime strategy that brings together all aspects of national power.

“This would be a first for Australia, and it is what we have tried to achieve with this publication.”

Vice Admiral Jones (Retd) said the publication continues the Naval Studies Group’s tradition of practical scholarship in support of national strategy.

“Australia’s declared intent to have a maritime-focused strategy is not yet matched by the means to achieve it,” Vice Admiral Jones (Retd) said.

“While there is significant investment coming in the 2030s, even this does not address many of the gaps in our ability to protect the maritime domain from issues in mine warfare capability to logistics capability and the lack of a coastguard.

“This report highlights those gaps and sets out practical steps to close them. It seeks to translate strategic aspiration into achievable maritime action – bridging the space between rhetoric and reality.”

The strategy is structured around three key objectives:

The study also calls for reforms to governance, funding, and civil maritime capabilities, including an Australian sealift command and stronger coordination across government and industry.

Contributors to the strategy include Dr Mark Bailey, Dr Richard Dunley, Dr Jack McCaffrie, John Mortimer, Dr John Reeve, and Dr Neil Westphalen. The work builds on the Naval Studies Group’s 2022 publication Protecting Australian Maritime Trade.

Professor Craig Stockings, Head of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at UNSW Canberra, described the publication as “a timely and important contribution to national debate. It reminds us that maritime strategy is not a narrow naval concern – it is the organising logic of national security for a maritime nation.”

The publication will be launched by Vice Admiral Tim Barrett (Retd) on Tuesday 4 November 2025 at the Indo-Pacific International Maritime Exposition in Sydney.