CANBERRA - The Australian government will increase military spending by A$53 billion ($38.1 billion) over the next 10 years under the 2026 national defense strategy (NDS) announced on Thursday.
Minister for Defense and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles detailed the new strategy in a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra, describing the funding boost as the "biggest peacetime increase" in Australian history.
He said that the new NDS includes an additional A$14 billion in spending over the next four years compared to the previous strategy from 2024, and an additional A$53 billion over the next decade.
The government said that the increased spending will take Australia's defense budget to 3 percent of GDP by 2033 under the NATO methodology that includes adjacent spending such as military pensions.
Australia's defense budget is currently at 2.0 percent of GDP under a narrower method of calculation that does not include adjacent spending. The 2024 NSD projected that defense spending would hit 2.4 percent of GDP by 2034 under the narrower definition.
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Marles said that Australia is facing its "most complex and threatening strategic circumstances" since the end of World War II amid the erosion of "international norms" that once constrained the use of force.
He said that the federal government would pursue every avenue to quickly increase defense capability, including through accessing private capital.
"It puts Australia on a path to strengthen our defense self-reliance. It reinforces the industrial and national foundations of defense, and it situates Australia firmly within a network of trusted regional and global partnerships," he said of the NSD.
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The increased spending includes A$12 billion that was previously announced to upgrade shipyards in Western Australia that will support maintenance of nuclear-powered submarines and up to A$5 billion for new investments in drone technology.
