Bipartisan members of Congress have so far strongly endorsed the plan and the new chapter in the partnership between the three countries.

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Among them is Democratic congresswoman Sara Jacobs, a former foreign policy adviser to Hillary Clinton who travelled to Australia in October to strengthen ties and learn more about AUKUS as part of a delegation with the House of Representatives’ foreign affairs committee.

“There is broad bipartisan consensus in Congress recognising the importance of the US-Australia relationship and we’re ready to do what it takes to make sure that AUKUS is successful,” she told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Republican Mike Gallagher, who co-chairs Congress’ AUKUS working group alongside Democrat congressman Joe Courtney, also threw his weight behind Tuesday’s announcement and plans to use his new role as a head of a special committee on China to tackle the issue of export controls.

“Now we must act with urgency to not only fully resource and implement this agreement, but also make the necessary policy choices to make AUKUS as successful as possible,” he said.

And Senator James Risch, the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate foreign relations committee, said that while he strongly supported the push for Australia to acquire new submarines, the Biden administration should also sharpen its focus on the second pillar of AUKUS, which aims to boost co-operation in areas such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence.

“While a credible undersea capability is a critical piece of this, it will take well over a decade to deliver additional submarines to the Indo-Pacific,” Risch said.

“The Biden administration also needs to be laser-focused on the second pillar of AUKUS – advanced capabilities. This is where AUKUS will see its earliest and most impactful wins and get more capability into the region.”

The Albanese government describes AUKUS as the single biggest upgrade to the nation’s defence capabilities in history. The sweeping plan will begin with more visits to Australian ports by US submarines this year and British vessels from 2026, before a fixed rotation of naval power in Perth.

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Over time, Australia will aim to build a new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, jointly designed with the UK called the SSN-AUKUS. Eight such submarines will be made in Adelaide and start entering service in the 2040s. They will be fitted with vertical launch systems to fire cruise missiles.

In the meantime, Australia will buy at least three and up to five Virginia-class submarines from the US. But this will depend on approval from Congress, where some members have previously raised concerns that America’s industrial submarine base could be stretched to breaking point.

Kevin Graney, president of General Dynamics Electric Boat, which is one of two companies that make Virginia-class submarines in the US, said he welcomed AUKUS and the attention it placed on “the importance of continuing to grow our submarine industrial base here in the United States”.

China, meanwhile, responded by warning that the countries involved were going “further down the wrong and dangerous path for their own geopolitical self-interest”.

However, navy under-secretary Erik Raven said on Wednesday (AEST) that America’s security and prosperity were dependent upon unfettered access to the sea.

“We are at an inflection point, with critical choices to make to meet the pacing challenge posed by the People’s Republic of China, the acute threat of Russia, as well as the persistent threats of Iran, North Korea and other malign actors,” he said.

Some politicians had previously raised concerns about the US industrial base being too stretched under the AUKUS deal. However, Bryan Clark, a senior fellow and director at the Hudson Institute, said he believed the benefit to the US and Australia of having submarines closer to “potential flash points” in the region outweighed those concerns.

Charles Edel, the Australian chair of the Centre for Strategic & International Studies, a Washington-based think-tank, said: “This will be an enormous investment – budget-wise and politically – but it also holds out the hope of growing the collective capabilities of these three nations, further aligning their strategies, and increasing collective security across the Indo-Pacific region.”

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