The navy has shed more than 500 sailors over the past two years and is 1000 people short of its target, starkly highlighting the Albanese government’s difficulties in refusing a US request to send a warship to the Red Sea to protect cargo ships from rebel Houthi attacks.

Analysis of Defence Department figures by AFR Weekend shows that the navy’s headcount has fallen from a peak of 15,287 in 2020-21, to 14,745 last financial year – the equivalent of three crews for the ageing Anzac-class frigates or the navy’s most powerful warships, the Hobart-class destroyers.