President Joe Biden was hosting the leaders of Australia and Britain, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, on a US naval base in San Diego, California, to announce the plan.
Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, told reporters that the submarine plan illustrates Washington's long-term vow to guarding "peace and stability" in the Asia-Pacific region. The new model, also nuclear-powered and carrying conventional weapons, is a longer-term project and will be dubbed the SSN-AUKUS, he said. It will be built on the base of a British design, with US technology, and "significant investments in all three industrial bases," Sullivan said.
Australia had previously been on track to replace its aging fleet of diesel-powered submarines with a $66 billion package of French vessels, also conventionally powered. China warned that AUKUS risked setting off an arms race and accused the three countries of setting back nuclear nonproliferation efforts.