7NEWS Spotlight’s Liam Bartlett delves into the state of the Australian Defence Force

If the Canberra brains trust ever needed proof that we have a problem in our region with Chinese ambition, they only need watch replays of Xi’s massive military parade and the accompanying gathering of butchers, dictators and autocrats, cheering from the VIP seats in Tiananmen Square.

Only Dan Andrews, and possibly Stevie Wonder, would fail to see the ill intent in the heavily choreographed messaging the Communist Party was broadcasting to the rest of the world and, as a Chinese official once put it, to the ‘chewing gum on the bottom of their shoes’, like us.

Consequently, it was a display that crystallised the importance of having strong friends on the right side of history and how crucial it is to maintain our alliance with the United States.

Over recent weeks, 7NEWS Spotlight has delved into the state of the Australian Defence Force — It’s capabilities and weaknesses and whether we should be taking a lead from the Trump White House and spending more than we currently commit.

The short answer is there is no doubt we are in a parlous state.

Despite the motherhood ramblings of Defence minister Richard Marles, the budget is not being allocated adequately for what is needed today.

Through the AUKUS deal, hundreds of millions are being spent in the future at the expense of a very real, clear and present risk.

Make no mistake, AUKUS will deliver excellent capability for Australia’s needs when it is complete but delivery of the first nuclear-powered submarine is still almost a decade away and Supreme Leader Xi has made it clear his team are ‘unstoppable’ in the here and now.

Marles talks a lot about the subs deal and new ships for the navy and missile manufacturing that we desperately need, but it’s all slated for a Tomorrowland that promises to provide great things for our servicemen and women.

The catch here is getting our potential enemies to hold off on any regional conflict until we’re good and ready. It’s a cunning strategy if you believe we can somehow freeze the timing of global politics.

But the reality is we are betraying the bravery and commitment from our current service personnel by leaving them hopelessly under-equipped and badly resourced during a period over the next few years that could prove crucial.

I can tell you from first-hand experience that our forces struggle with simple supply and maintenance issues, having just returned from the Philippines to witness a joint exercise called Alon25.

Described by Minister Marles as the biggest off-shore exercise our forces would participate in all year, alongside US and Canadian forces, the hype fell flat when an Aussie Hercules C-130 broke down and failed to transport a VIP load of top brass to a live-firing display.

Embarrassingly, one of the stranded officers was the Chief of the Australian Air Force. Another incident saw one of our most prestigious warships, the HMAS Brisbane suffer an anchor malfunction that delayed berthing for many hours at Subic Bay.

These are trifling mishaps in the scheme of things but combine them with the lack of anti-drone technology that we discovered at Garden Island naval base in Sydney and the complete lack of protection for some of our top line air-combat assets at Williamtown in NSW and Amberley in Queensland and you begin to see a pattern of neglect and lack of duty of care.

Most of this is from a long line of politicians who have lacked vision and rigour but some can also be sheeted home to senior officers, more worried about their retirement benefits than thumping the table to extract a better deal for their subordinates.

It’s no secret that our defence force is top heavy with the ratio of frontline troops to generals more than eleven times that of the US army.

With those numbers, it’s not hard to imagine that it’s a lot easier to have a procurement form signed for a tea and medals ceremony than it is for a new weapons system.

And why would anyone sign up to a workplace that may leave them fatally exposed? Jennifer Parker, a former second in command of HMAS Darwin and a principal warfare officer, estimates that if a conflict broke out tomorrow and Australia either needed to support an ally or defend itself, it could probably put no more than three warships to sea. For the entire country.

In addition, if ballistic missiles, like those we saw in Xi’s hit parade, began striking Darwin, we could defend that city for no more than 12 hours.

It’s a sobering assessment and little wonder that Australia is losing more than five thousand defence personnel a year. But we should all be concerned because their morale is our strength and though we will never have a defence force big enough to stand alone against the might of Beijing, we all deserve a smarter, more potent force that can deter effectively and help our allies to keep the peace.

As US Senator Roger Wicker told me, as chair of the US Armed Service Committee; “When China moves into an area, freedoms vanish”.

Thankfully the Senator is a fan of AUKUS and perhaps even more importantly, agreed that the US would jump in and help, automatically if we were attacked because Australia is “one of our steadfast allies and a free Australia is in our self-interest”.