Defamation proceedings brought by decorated soldier Ben Roberts-Smith will be heard in a six-week trial starting in June next year, with a "very large number of witnesses" expected to give evidence.

Mr Roberts-Smith, a Victoria Cross recipient, is suing The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times in the Federal Court over a series of articles published in 2018 which he says are defamatory because they portray him as someone who "broke the moral and legal rules of military engagement" and committed murder.

Ben Roberts-Smith pictured in 2017. Credit:Darrian Traynor

He says the articles also wrongly portray him as a "hypocrite" who "abused a woman", by detailing allegations that he punched a woman with whom he was having an affair, and carry the defamatory imputation that he disgraced his country and the Australian Army through his conduct overseas.

The 40-year-old former SAS soldier, who was deployed to Afghanistan six times between 2006 and 2012, is seeking to have the articles taken down from the internet and for the newspapers to be permanently restrained from repeating the claims in the stories.