Royal Australian Navy

The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is undergoing its largest recapitalisation since the Second World War, driven by the 2024 surface fleet review and by a strategic environment in which Australia's security depends on sea lanes running through contested waters to its north. The review restructured the fleet into tiers: a small number of high-end Tier 1 combatants for air defence and anti-submarine warfare, and a larger group of Tier 2 general-purpose frigates to provide presence and escort at lower cost, alongside a nuclear-powered submarine force acquired through AUKUS.

Today's fleet is small but capable. Three Hobart-class destroyers, equipped with the Aegis combat system and undergoing a combat system upgrade, provide area air defence. Eight Anzac-class frigates, progressively modernised and now being drawn down as replacements arrive, carry the bulk of routine tasking. Two Canberra-class landing helicopter docks and the landing ship Choules provide amphibious lift, while Arafura-class offshore patrol vessels have begun replacing the Armidale-class in constabulary roles. Six Collins-class submarines, subject to a life-of-type extension to bridge the gap to nuclear propulsion, remain the underwater force, supported by two Supply-class replenishment ships and Huon-class minehunters.

The general-purpose frigate programme is the most consequential near-term decision. In August 2025 Australia selected Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' upgraded Mogami design, with the first ships to be built in Japan and the remainder in Western Australia, an acquisition that also creates a defence-industrial relationship with Tokyo. The Hunter-class programme continues in parallel at Osborne, delivering six anti-submarine frigates derived from the British Type 26 and entering service in the early 2030s.

Under AUKUS, Australia is to receive three in-service Virginia-class submarines from 2032, a plan simplified in May 2026 when the partners dropped the previously planned newly built boat in favour of a third second-hand hull, reflecting the limits of United States shipyard capacity. These will be followed by SSN-AUKUS, built at Osborne from the late 2030s. Enabling infrastructure is already advancing: up to 8 billion Australian dollars for Submarine Rotational Force-West at HMAS Stirling and 12 billion for the Henderson defence precinct, and in late 2025 a United States submarine completed a maintenance period at Stirling without a tender, the first practical demonstration of forward sustainment in Australia.

The RAN's operational reach spans the eastern Indian Ocean, South East Asia and the South Pacific. It conducts regular Indo-Pacific Endeavour deployments, transits of the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait with partner navies, maritime security patrols in the Middle East, and fisheries and sovereignty patrols across an exclusive economic zone that is among the largest in the world. Crewing that expanding fleet, rather than funding it, remains the navy's binding constraint.