As countries around the world look to fill their own missile stockpiles in response to the war in Ukraine, Australian politicians should seek local suppliers to fill the critical shortfall before the decade's end, the experts urged.

Defence Minister Richard Marles earlier this month was handed an interim report as part of a strategic review recommending where the Austrlian Defence Force should prioritise its investments.

Multi-billion dollar projects, including the Army's LAND 400 infantry fighting vehicles, have been paused awaiting the review due to be handed to the federal government next March.

But Australian Strategic Policy Institute defence expert Marcus Hellyer said there's a lot of catching up to do and it needs to be done swiftly if Australia is to be prepared for a potential armed conflict in the region.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd this month warned he foresaw Chinese President Xi Jinping would make a move to bring Taiwan back under its sovereignty within the decade.

The move could bring Australia, in part due to its alliance with the US, into a catastrophic battle over the Taiwan Straits.

Dr Hellyer said the country's military has been left in the uneviable position of having few long-range capabilities to fight a war of that nature.

"The F-35 is a very capable fighter plane, but it doesn't have a very long range," he said.

"So we can't go very far into the vast reaches of the Indo Pacific. We don't really have anything in inventory at the moment.

"We're pretty much outgunned by the PLA [China's Peoples Liberation Army] in some key areas."

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While Australia's defence force has largely been balanced, Australian National University defence researcher Andrew Carr believes the strategic review could shift it to becoming more focused on naval and aerial domains.

And it could mean cuts to major Army projects, he said.

"We don't have the 10 year warning time that we thought we might," Dr Carr said.

"I think the focus is going to be very much what can be done in the next two to five years to really improve and increase the capacity of the ADF.

"Army has a critical role to play in that. But it's a very different kind of role to the one that they've played over the last 20 years in the Middle East."

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Countries around the world have eyed their own guided missile stockpiles following the outbreak of war in Ukraine, drawing out backorder queues to years instead of months.

Dr Hellyer said while the last decade had been wasted, supporting local industry could help Australia in the interim, including boosting the nation's missile stocks.

"We blew it, in a sense," he said.

"We need to be supporting Australian industry right now because ... the rest of the world is limited in what it can do to help us right at the moment.

"If the Department of Defence actually gave [some Australian companies] a contract, they could start delivering them within months."