diff --git a/packages/angular/build/src/builders/dev-server/tests/behavior/build-external-dependencies_spec.ts b/packages/angular/build/src/builders/dev-server/tests/behavior/build-external-dependencies_spec.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..42405a75181e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/angular/build/src/builders/dev-server/tests/behavior/build-external-dependencies_spec.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+/**
+ * @license
+ * Copyright Google LLC All Rights Reserved.
+ *
+ * Use of this source code is governed by an MIT-style license that can be
+ * found in the LICENSE file at https://angular.dev/license
+ */
+
+import { executeDevServer } from '../../index';
+import { executeOnceAndFetch } from '../execute-fetch';
+import { describeServeBuilder } from '../jasmine-helpers';
+import { BASE_OPTIONS, DEV_SERVER_BUILDER_INFO } from '../setup';
+
+describeServeBuilder(executeDevServer, DEV_SERVER_BUILDER_INFO, (harness, setupTarget) => {
+  describe('Behavior: "browser builder external dependencies"', () => {
+    beforeEach(async () => {
+      setupTarget(harness, {
+        externalDependencies: ['rxjs', 'rxjs/operators'],
+      });
+
+      await harness.writeFile(
+        'src/main.ts',
+        `
+        import { BehaviorSubject } from 'rxjs';
+        import { map } from 'rxjs/operators';
+
+        const subject = new BehaviorSubject<string>('hello');
+        console.log(subject.value);
+
+        subject.pipe(map((val) => val + ' there')).subscribe(console.log);
+      `,
+      );
+    });
+
+    it('respects import specifiers for externalized dependencies', async () => {
+      harness.useTarget('serve', {
+        ...BASE_OPTIONS,
+      });
+
+      const { result, response } = await executeOnceAndFetch(harness, 'main.js');
+
+      expect(result?.success).toBeTrue();
+
+      const text = await response?.text();
+      expect(text).toContain(`import { BehaviorSubject } from "rxjs";`);
+      expect(text).toContain(`import { map } from "rxjs/operators";`);
+    });
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/angular/build/src/builders/dev-server/vite-server.ts b/packages/angular/build/src/builders/dev-server/vite-server.ts
index 27d6fd4cd840..239abd4401c7 100644
--- a/packages/angular/build/src/builders/dev-server/vite-server.ts
+++ b/packages/angular/build/src/builders/dev-server/vite-server.ts
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import { basename, join } from 'node:path';
 import type { Connect, DepOptimizationConfig, InlineConfig, ViteDevServer } from 'vite';
 import { createAngularMemoryPlugin } from '../../tools/vite/angular-memory-plugin';
 import { createAngularLocaleDataPlugin } from '../../tools/vite/i18n-locale-plugin';
+import { createRemoveIdPrefixPlugin } from '../../tools/vite/id-prefix-plugin';
 import { loadProxyConfiguration, normalizeSourceMaps } from '../../utils';
 import { loadEsmModule } from '../../utils/load-esm';
 import { ApplicationBuilderOutput } from '../application';
@@ -577,6 +578,7 @@ export async function setupServer(
         extensionMiddleware,
         normalizePath,
       }),
+      createRemoveIdPrefixPlugin(externalMetadata.explicit),
     ],
     // Browser only optimizeDeps. (This does not run for SSR dependencies).
     optimizeDeps: getDepOptimizationConfig({
diff --git a/packages/angular/build/src/tools/vite/id-prefix-plugin.ts b/packages/angular/build/src/tools/vite/id-prefix-plugin.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..1cfe294dca05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/angular/build/src/tools/vite/id-prefix-plugin.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+/**
+ * @license
+ * Copyright Google LLC All Rights Reserved.
+ *
+ * Use of this source code is governed by an MIT-style license that can be
+ * found in the LICENSE file at https://angular.dev/license
+ */
+
+import type { Plugin } from 'vite';
+
+// NOTE: the implementation for this Vite plugin is roughly based on:
+// https://github.com/MilanKovacic/vite-plugin-externalize-dependencies
+
+const VITE_ID_PREFIX = '/@id/';
+
+const escapeRegexSpecialChars = (inputString: string): string => {
+  return inputString.replace(/[.*+?^${}()|[\]\\]/g, '\\$&'); // $& means the whole matched string
+};
+
+export const createRemoveIdPrefixPlugin = (externals: string[]): Plugin => ({
+  name: 'vite-plugin-remove-id-prefix',
+  apply: 'serve',
+  configResolved: (resolvedConfig) => {
+    // don't do anything when the list of externals is empty
+    if (externals.length === 0) {
+      return;
+    }
+
+    const escapedExternals = externals.map(escapeRegexSpecialChars);
+    const prefixedExternalRegex = new RegExp(
+      `${VITE_ID_PREFIX}(${escapedExternals.join('|')})`,
+      'g',
+    );
+
+    // @ts-expect-error: Property 'push' does not exist on type 'readonly Plugin<any>[]'
+    // Reasoning:
+    //  since the /@id/ prefix is added by Vite's import-analysis plugin,
+    //  we must add our actual plugin dynamically, to ensure that it will run
+    //  AFTER the import-analysis.
+    resolvedConfig.plugins.push({
+      name: 'vite-plugin-remove-id-prefix-transform',
+      transform: (code: string) => {
+        // don't do anything when code does not contain the Vite prefix
+        if (!code.includes(VITE_ID_PREFIX)) {
+          return code;
+        }
+
+        return code.replace(prefixedExternalRegex, (_, externalName) => externalName);
+      },
+    });
+  },
+});