Despite measures put in place to prevent sexual assaults and abuse following a landmark review of the treatment of women in the force 10 years ago, the numbers remain stubbornly unmoved since the department standardised its reporting framework for sexual offences.

Even as pandemic restrictions reduced physical interactions, 161 sexual assaults were reported to military police in the latest yearly snapshot, and that rate remains consistent in the unpublished data.

The number of recent incidents is probably far higher than reflected in departmental statistics, as 125 individuals came forward seeking wellbeing and legal support from the Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response Office, while 235 managers and commanders sought advice for responding to cases in their units.

Only half of these reported cases proceeded to an investigation.

A former member of the Royal Australian Navy, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity, said she felt forced to abandon her career after reporting she'd been raped by one of her superiors.

"They said I wouldn't be believed and to move on," she said.

Defence was contacted for comment but declined to respond to the allegations.

The woman said she had just turned 19 when a trainer from the Royal Australian Air Force Base Wagga forced himself on her after a night out.

Having fled the off-base house where she says the rape occurred, the woman says she was told days later when she got the courage to report it that just because she regretted having sex it didn't mean there was a crime.

Part of a multi-disciplinary group stationed at the base, the navy seaman says she was one of hundreds of women amongst thousands of men in 1998.

She says a culture was allowed to foster at the base which laid the foundation for women to be sexually harassed and for men to get away with it.

The woman says she was made to sign papers stating she was leaving on discharge that claimed her retention was "not in the interests of the Australian Defence Force", after unsuccessfully trying to leave on her own terms or be retrained and moved somewhere else.

Having worked with lawyers for the past three years to access some reparation, the woman says she had all but given up on the legal process.

"There's this realisation that it could all be for nothing," she said.

The recent allegations of sexual violence inside Parliament House prompted the woman to reconnect with lawyers.

She said the trauma was exacerbated by Defence Force Chief Angus Campbell's message to cadets to avoid alcohol and being out late alone so as not to become vulnerable to sexual predators.

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"When I saw Brittany Higgins come forward and saw that she wasn't believed and that people around her actively worked to undermine the process and actively worked against her best interests to protect themselves, I went in to a tailspin," she said.

"I was so angry because it was exactly what I went through.

"Every time I see her face I see my young self and I see that everyone around her failed her, and everyone around me failed me.

"And everybody around other women I know who have been raped in the navy, they failed them too and they continue to do that.

The navy veteran said since opening up about her abuse she has had both men and women reach out to her with similar stories from their time in the Defence Force.

"There's been a lot of years and a lot of inquiries and a lot of talk of changing the culture, and from the comments and messages I've received it really just doesn't look like that's happened at all," she said.

Large numbers of current and former Defence personnel came forward to disclose historical abuse in the wake of the flurry of reviews and investigations from 2011 to 2013. However, three-quarters of newly reported cases concern incidents that occurred within the last 12 months.