Australia's toddlers of today are being primed to work and serve on the nation's future fleet of nuclear submarines.
Expanding pre-school to younger children across all parts of South Australia is a key strategy to ensure eight nuclear-powered submarines will be in service by the 2050s, Defence SA chief executive Matt Opie says.
Adelaide is set to become the submarine construction hub after Australia entered the AUKUS security pact with the US and UK, and local children could play a key role.
"These three-year-olds will be the ones serving on the first of fleet for SSN-AUKUS," Mr Opie said at the Indo Pacific International Maritime Exposition on Wednesday.
"We need to give them the opportunities to get the education and the skills required to serve on those platforms - whether they're indeed in uniform, or whether they're supporting them."
Similar initiatives have been introduced for high school students while the SA government has opened technical colleges so teenagers can begin specialising in manufacturing.
"The key thing is to give young people options and make them informed so they're not discounting choices early," Mr Opie said.
But more may need to be done to protect the nation, according to the defence force chief.
Admiral David Johnston said a resurgence in state-on-state conflicts meant Australia must prepare for technologically complex and borderless battles.
More countries were in conflicts in 2024 than at any point since World War II and Australia should look to Ukraine's stoic defence of Russia's invasion for a clear blueprint on military capability, he told military leaders and weapons manufacturers.
"Australia, a nation girt by sea, has previously been able to rely on geographic distance for our security," Adml Johnston said.
But technological advances meant the nation's "vast oceans now sometimes offer little more protection than narrow creeks.
"The growing reach and lethality of long-range strike and autonomous and uncrewed systems means that a potential adversary no longer needs to be near our shores to pose a serious threat."
The AUKUS pact, estimated to cost $368 billion across 30 years, will be core to boosting maritime capabilities, he said.
Adml Johnston was addressing the navy's arm of the Indo Pacific International Maritime Exposition a day after demonstrators clashed with police outside the biennial event.
Protesters, led by the Palestine Action Group, took issue with the NSW government hosting exhibitors including Israeli weapons manufacturers and other firms supplying that nation's military.
