Australia as a Regional Maritime Power
Jennifer Parker | 21 October 2026
*Originally published in The Strategist on 21 October 2026
Image: HMAS Adelaide during Indo Pacific Endeavour 2017: Peter Thompson/Department of Defence.
As Australia seeks to rebuild much of its aged naval fleet, it should also look to rebuild how it perceives itself in the maritime region of the Indo-Pacific. Australia is and has always been a regional maritime power, even if its capability has at times not kept pace with that statement. Australian leaders should not refer to Australia as a small Navy or seek to downplay our regional influence, quite the contrary they should lean into the confidence of Australia as a regional maritime power.
The sniggering responses to the above statement can easily be predicted. As a nation, Australians have rarely been comfortable with confidence. Many will point to Australia’s historically small surface combatant fleet, or aging submarines. All valid critiques. But maritime power is not measured by ships alone. It is also measured by influence. And influence in the maritime domain goes beyond capability, it's built on relationships.
Australia is a regional maritime power, and our regional partners have expectations of Australia to fulfil that role. The capability will come, it’s the influence Australia should focus on harnessing now.
Australia generates influence through hosting the largest regional maritime exercises such as Exercise Kakadu, Talisman Sabre, but also the training it provides to regional partners across a range of areas. Its courses are sought after by junior leaders in regional navies and often held as a matter of prestige. In the Pacific, its support to fisheries operations, the Pacific Maritime Security Program further emphasise this point.
Why does it matter? Most obviously, Australia’s stated strategy is one of deterrence. While there are significant challenges in that concept beyond the point of this op-ed, deterrence is about perception, your adversary’s perception. But beyond this level of simplicity, there is a deeper why. Harnessing influence in the region creates stronger regional relationships, and greater regional maritime understanding. It’s a comfort level that means partners may turn to Australia in a maritime crisis, rather than our adversaries. As a country with a significant maritime domain and dependencies our maritime influence has a direct impact on our security.
National acceptance of Australia’s role as a regional maritime power can form a key unifying feature of Australia’s national maritime strategy. Anchoring a sense of maritime identity.
Australia should embrace its role as a regional maritime power by stating it openly, confidently, in its strategy, in the speeches of senior leaders. Secondly, by thinking of the maritime exercises it undertakes, the training, the doctrinal and maintenance supports and key aspects of its role as a regional maritime power and looking for ways to increase them, to build on this strength. Thirdly by considering new ways to enhance its influence as a regional maritime power.
A prime example is a reinvigoration of Indo-Pacific Endeavour. Conceptualised during my time working in the joint headquarters in the mid-2010s, I sailed on the first iteration of Indo-Pacific Endeavour in 2017. It was a task group deployment of multiple ships structured around a Canberra class LHD into the Pacific, Southeast Asia and Indian Ocean. It demonstrated capability, naval power but more than that, it became a major task group deployment where regional partners could join with either people or ships. It was instigated to demonstrate Australian maritime power and that Australia was a regional maritime power that prioritised the region.
The gradual shift of Indo-Pacific Endeavour away from a substantial naval task group deployment towards a program dominated by fly-away training teams represents a lost opportunity.
With training a key pillar of Australia’s conceptualisation as a regional maritime power, Australia should invest in training ships. Again, this is not new. Australia has previously operated dedicated training ships, including HMAS Jervis Bay, and in 1988 deployed a training squadron of HMA Ships Stalwart, Jervis Bay and Stuart through Southeast Asia.
Dedicated training ships would increase sea time and maritime exposure for RAN sailors at a point when the surface combatant fleet remains limited and will not begin to grow again until the 2030s. These deployments could also reserve a percentage of bunks for sailors and officers from regional navies, helping to build professional bonds and maritime skills while conducting training and goodwill visits across the region.
Australia is a regional maritime power, with the opportunities and responsibilities that come with that. Soon its maritime capabilities, and technological edge will again match that statement. It's time to embrace that role, not just in how we speak about ourselves, but in how we build and exercise maritime influence across the region.
