The multibillion-dollar defence war chest would go towards recruitment, securing more F-35 fighters and finalising the much-debated AUKUS deal for nuclear-powered submarines.

It’s expected the proposal will cost the federal budget around $25 to $30 billion per year.

The Coalition also forecasts its defence spending will lift to three per cent of the country’s GDP within the next 10 years, matching President Donald Trump’s vow to hit the same figure in the US.

“The prime minister and the deputy prime minister regularly tell Australians that we live in the most precarious period since the end of the Second World War,” Dutton said in a statement today.

“Yet, over the last three years, Labor has done nothing about it, other than rip money out of defence, weakening strength and morale.”

Dutton’s defence expenditure would outstrip Labor’s defence spending, which is forecast to reach $100 billion annually by 2034 – amounting to around 2.33 per cent of Australia’s GDP.

Shadow Defence Minister Andrew Hastie said the Coalition would reveal the cost breakdown before election day on May 3.

”There will always be trade-offs when you’re making decisions of state,” he told ABC’s Radio National.

“But what price do we put on defence? I think, with the growth of authoritarian powers, with the war in Ukraine, with the changes in the Indo-Pacific region, with the Trump administration moving deeper into an ‘America first’ perspective and position, we need to be able to defend ourselves.”

Earlier today, Defence Minister Richard Marles blasted Dutton’s proposal and labelled it a “pathetic whimper”.

”I just don’t think you can trust the Liberals when it comes to anything they say in respect of defence,” he told the ABC.

“There are some reports that the 2.5 per cent is a target, there’s no explanation of how they’re paying for this, where the money’s coming from, or really is there an explanation of where the money is being spent on?

“What we have here is not really a defence policy from the Liberals. It is a pathetic whimper.”