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Project Waler was an unsuccessful Australian defence procurement exercise which sought to replace the Australian Army's M113 armoured personnel carriers with more capable armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs). It was initiated in 1980 and cancelled in 1985 without any vehicles being procured.

The goal of the project was to replace the Army's M113s during the mid-1990s with between 500 and 1,000 AFVs optimised for Australian conditions. These vehicles were to be built in Australia to support the local manufacturing industry. After initial scoping work, proposals were sought from companies during 1981. These proposals were submitted in 1982, and further studies were undertaken in 1983. While the scoping studies demonstrated that it would be feasible to build the vehicles in Australia, a planned tender to acquire them was not issued. Instead, Project Waler was cancelled by the Australian Government in July 1985 due to concerns over the cost and capabilities of the proposed vehicles. The M113s used by the Army's armoured reconnaissance units were replaced by ASLAV wheeled armoured fighting vehicles that were similar to the designs considered under Project Waler. Most of the remaining fleet of M113s were upgraded.

Project Waler is sometimes cited as an example of a mismanaged Australian defence procurement process, with commentators noting that it had been over-ambitious and not enough emphasis was placed on keeping costs down. The M113 upgrade project was also unsuccessful, with the resultant vehicles being unfit for combat, and the Australian Government launched a new project in 2018 to replace them.

The Australian Government placed its first orders for M113s during the 1963–1964 financial year.<1> At this time, it was planned to retain the type until 1995.<2> The Australian Army began operating M113s in March 1965, and they were successfully used in combat during the Vietnam War.<1> Multiple orders for M113s were placed, totalling either 817<3> or 840.<4> These comprised nine variants tailored for different roles, with the majority being M113A1 armoured personnel carriers.<4> Deliveries were completed in 1979.<5> From 1970 the M113 was the standard vehicle for all of the Army's armoured units other than the 1st Armoured Regiment, which operated tanks.<6>

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) was partially restructured in line with the Defence of Australia policy. This policy was focused on protecting continental Australia, and especially northern Australia, from attack and represented a move away from previous policies which had been based around expeditionary warfare.<7> It also included an emphasis on self-reliance. However, force structure design was hampered by unclear strategic guidance and budget limitations. The Army began preparing for conventional warfare in Australia, but there was an institutional belief that an invasion was highly unlikely.<8> The Liberal-Country party coalition Fraser government that was in power from 1975 to March 1983 and the Australian Labor Party Hawke government that succeeded it had similar defence policies during this period.