Ex-military intelligence agent John Powers chilling warning about Australia's defence forces
John Powers served as a US special forces soldier, brigade task force commander and military intelligence specialist in his career spanning four decades.
In his final posting before retiring from the US government, Mr Powers served as the Chief of Intelligence Liaison at the US Embassy in Canberra, where he resides today.
The dual US-Australian citizen issued some harsh truths as he called on Australia to increase its military spending in order to keep pace with its largest strategic ally.
'When I look at where I'm going to strike, I look at where vulnerabilities are because it's through those vulnerabilities I'm going to get to the rest of the force,' he told Seven News.
'And right now, to no fault of the men and women who serve in our ADF, capability-wise we're waning so... we're a liability.
'There are people who aren't going to like what I've got to say but it's the truth.
During his tenure with the US military, Mr Powers helped to plan wars.
'When we would put together plans, we would start with Australia,' he said.
'We'd always start to figure out how can we get the Aussies into the fray because when it comes to just grit and mettle and the intangibles of being a reliable soldier, sailor, airman... you could not have a better ally.'
But Australia's underspending on defence had detracted from its allure as a strategic partner, according to Mr Powers.
'We have not manned and equipped and sustained our military, our ADF, so that it can keep pace materially and capability-wise with the United States,' he said.
Mr Powers went as far as to claim that Australia had lost its ability to defend itself.
It comes after US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth recently called on Australia to hike its defence budget to 3.5 per cent of its GDP 'as soon as possible '.
Australia currently has plans to lift its defence spending from two per cent to about 2.4 per cent of its GDP by 2033-34, from about $53bn to an estimated $100bn.
'I think we've underspent on defence from the standpoint of we don't have the capabilities that we need to even defend ourselves,' Mr Powers said.
He added that it's not just Australia that needs to step up.
'It's a collective thing that's happened over time,' Mr Powers said.
'It goes back to the fact that we always know, not only Australia, if you pick any NATO country, they always knew the US would be there.
'But those times have changed. We're in a different world environment.'
Mr Powers also slammed the AUKUS security agreement between Australia, Us and the UK, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spruiked as a boon to the defence of all three signatories.
While the pact is designed to deliver at least three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia in the 2030s, it is contingent on US security assessments.
'I don't think it's a good deal,' Mr Powers said.
'I'm not confident we'll ever see those three Virginia-class submarines.'
Mr Powers urged Australia to deepen its ties with the White House, with Albanese yet to lock in a face-to-face meeting with Trump since the US President was re-elected in January.
He called on Australia's Ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, to step down, claiming his contacts in the US had made their feelings about the former Prime Minister clear.
'Mr Rudd should do the honourable thing and resign,' Mr Powers said.
'Mr Trump doesn't like him. And as a result of Mr Trump not liking him, nobody else in his administration is going to give him the time of day.
'That is a disservice to us as Australians.'
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