Defence Spending
Bigger than expected
The defence budget for 2025-26 was originally meant to land at $58.9 billion.
Instead, it blew out to $63.2bn.
A massive chunk of that came from bringing future spending forward, particularly for the AUKUS nuclear submarine program, where spending jumped from roughly $3.1bn to more than $5bn.
The broader direction is even bigger than that headline number suggests.
The government says it’s committing an additional $53bn to defence over the next decade, including $14bn over the next four years
