Significant progress has already been made to deliver nuclear-powered submarines to Australia under the AUKUS pact and criticism of the $368 billion program is ill-informed or driven by outdated assumptions, a new analysis has concluded.

Separately, former Labor prime minister Paul Keating has excoriated Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Defence Minister Richard Marles for failing to explain why Australia should make such as “seminal turn” in its national security posture it will under AUKUS.