Australia should learn the lesson on hydrogen’s defence value from India

But recent events in the Strait of Hormuz have exposed a new Achilles heel: energy shortfalls. Without energy security – in the form of aviation fuel, diesel and petroleum to power planes, tanks and trucks – national security grinds to a halt.

Electricity is another part of that equation. In a high-intensity conflict, airfields, ports, surveillance systems, command centres and fuel installations would all need to keep operating if the grid was disrupted or conventional fuel supplies were cut.

Defence has begun addressing these vulnerabilities. Solar installations at RAAF Base Darwin and Robertson Barracks now provide up to 40 per cent of each base’s electricity requirements. The ADF is expanding fuel storage and distribution capacity, while the Defence Future Energy Strategy explicitly links alternative energy, sovereign production and national energy security.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s statement in Parliament on 15 September that green hydrogen must play a role in industrial decarbonisation also points towards a strategic role for the technology.

Defence should take a similarly targeted approach.

Electricity generation alone does not guarantee endurance. Solar power reduces demand on the grid or back-up generators while sunlight is available. Batteries can stabilise microgrids and cover short-term interruptions – but only for limited periods.

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But military bases operating through months-long grid outages require true base-load energy storage, alongside generators and fossil fuel reserves. Renewable hydrogen may help fill that gap when produced on site, stored for extended periods and converted back into electricity through fuel cells.

India – like Australia, a vast Indo-Pacific nation with a long coastline and large, remote areas to defend – provides a more direct military test case.

In November 2025, India’s Defence minister inaugurated a 3.7-megawatt solar-hydrogen microgrid at Chushul in Ladakh, near the mountainous border with China, built by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).

The stand-alone microgrid stores surplus solar energy as hydrogen and can provide electricity at any hour of the day in conditions reaching minus 40 degrees. It was designed to replace diesel by producing and storing energy locally.

NTPC said every three units of electricity generated removes the need to transport one litre of diesel from the plains.

For the military, this is more than an emissions benefit. Every litre of fuel not carried along a vulnerable supply route frees transport capacity, personnel and storage for tasks that cannot be electrified. It also reduces routine movements that an adversary can monitor, disrupt or target.

Chushul suggested hydrogen might also have a role for the ADF. There is already a civilian precedent in Australia.

Horizon Power’s remote community power plant in Denham, Western Australia, integrates solar power, electrolysers, hydrogen storage and fuel cells into an existing wind-solar-battery-diesel microgrid.

Its 2026 report identified operational lessons and integration challenges.

This is precisely the type of evidence Defence requires: operational experience gained in a harsh, remote environment rather than insights derived from another tabletop exercise.

Hydrogen, however, is not a cheap or simple solution

Converting electricity into hydrogen and then back into electricity is significantly less efficient than charging and discharging batteries.

Hydrogen production, compression and storage require additional infrastructure and space. Electrolysers require reliable supplies of clean water, while storage tanks, compressors and digitally connected control systems create additional maintenance, safety and cyber security risks.

At a fixed military installation, a poorly protected hydrogen facility could itself become a critical vulnerability for an adversary to target.

Interoperability also matters. For the ADF to operate seamlessly with the United States and other allies, a novel fuel that is not integrated with allied logistical networks could diminish rather than improve operational effectiveness.

Those limitations argue for testing hydrogen selectively, rather than adopting it wholesale.

Defence should trial solar-battery-hydrogen-diesel microgrids at selected northern and bare bases to support mission-critical functions.

Hydrogen would not replace liquid fuels or conventional generators. Rather, it could extend the period during which communications, surveillance, water treatment and command systems continue operating if both grid power and routine fuel deliveries are interrupted.

The test should be an operational one

Australia and India could evaluate black-start capability, islanding performance, cyber resilience, storage safety, water requirements and repairability under very different environmental conditions.

India could contribute experience from Chushul’s high-altitude, sub-zero environment. Australia could bring lessons from Denham’s hot, salt-laden and cyclone-prone conditions.

There are other applications worth testing within the same framework.

Renewable hydrogen can also be treated as an input into sovereign liquid-fuel production. In August, the ADF began incorporating low-carbon liquid-fuel blends across its supply network, while the newly established Defence Fuel Qualification Centre began domestic testing and certification of emerging fuels.

Biofuels represent one pathway. Synthetic diesel, marine fuels and aviation fuels produced from renewable hydrogen and captured carbon could provide another.

Their military advantage lies in compatibility with existing engines, storage infrastructure and fuel distribution networks.

Fuel cells also warrant targeted trials where their characteristics offer specific operational advantages. NATO has highlighted their potential for low noise and heat signatures. The US Naval Research Laboratory’s Ion Tiger demonstration completed a 26-hour hydrogen fuel-cell unmanned-aircraft flight, while the UK Ministry of Defence has trialled hydrogen-fuelled charging facilities and identified potential value in off-grid and compromised locations.

The lesson is not that hydrogen has “arrived” in defence. It is that specific uses can be tested against operational requirements.

Australia and India already have a pathway for doing this

The India-Australia Green Hydrogen Taskforce has recommended cooperation on electrolysers, storage systems, green fuels and workforce development. The 2026 Australia-India defence declaration also commits both countries to closer collaboration on defence innovation, supply-chain resilience and clean-energy technologies.

Canberra and New Delhi should harness those existing frameworks to establish a joint defence-energy test program.

The initiative could also be incorporated into bilateral or multilateral military exercises. A modular system capable of powering a small command post, communications hub or field hospital would have immediate relevance for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations – another priority recognised in the defence declaration.

That would also complement the July 2026 Australia-India Joint Statement on Energy Security, framed against disruption to energy supply and rising costs.

The strategic question is not whether Defence should “adopt hydrogen”. It is where locally produced energy can reduce vulnerable logistics movements, sustain critical infrastructure during disruption and strengthen a layered, sovereign energy supply chain.

Recent market disruption linked to the US–Iran conflict has shown the risk of relying too heavily on exposed energy supply routes. India is already testing an alternative in one of the world’s most challenging operational environments.

Australia should use those lessons where hydrogen can strengthen defence preparedness – and, just as importantly, learn where it cannot.

Dr Simran Keshwani and Dr Dalbir Ahlawat, School of International Studies, Macquarie University