Submarines are big business in CT. As manufacturing rises, federal money will flow to find, train workers

As U.S. military strategy increasingly turns to undersea warfare, Connecticut and other states are benefiting from rising spending by the U.S. Navy on the network of suppliers that contributes many of the 1 million or so parts that go into a submarine.

Federal spending last year began to reflect the requirements of the industrial base, said Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., chairman of a House Armed Services subcommittee.

“This year those numbers are huge,” he said.

As much as $400 million is earmarked to bolster the supply chain and more than $100 million for workforce development, he said. General Dynamics Electric Boat, for example, has continuing openings for welders, pipefitters, engineers, mechanics, draftsmen and other workers.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Navy is “really putting its money where its mouth is.”

As much as $750 million is to be allocated in 2023 to the submarine industrial base, particularly workforce training by community colleges, Electric Boat, regional workforce boards and other agencies, he said.

Details are not yet available but “we’re counting on this money in major part going to workforce development,” Blumenthal said.

“This is really drilling down to expand exponentially the amount of skilled training and learning opportunities that exist,” he said.

Electric Boat said in January it plans to hire more than 3,000 workers this year.

The Navy’s proposed fiscal year 2023 budget, which will take effect Oct. 1, asks Congress for $27.9 billion for shipbuilding. It would fund the procurement of eight new ships, including two Virginia class attack submarines, two destroyers and other ships, according to the Congressional Research Service..

Submarine procurement by the Navy is budgeted at $15.6 billion, or 44.5% of overall Navy shipbuilding spending that Courtney called an “astonishing number.”

The sinking in mid-April of the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, a guided-missile cruiser, may encourage U.S. military planners to rely more on submarines, he said.

“Surface ships are a vulnerability,” Courtney said. “Ukraine demonstrated that very vividly.”

Over the past five years, 352 submarine suppliers in Connecticut spent or contracted to spend $1.2 billion, according to the Submarine Industrial Base Suppliers. It accounted for nearly 5% of the $25.4 billion spent or contracted in the U.S.

Only California, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia accounted for greater submarine supplier spending.

Tony Sposato, vice president of Plainville Electrical Products Co., or PEPCO, said his company has hired seven engineers and four workers in manufacturing and assembly, a 20% boost to its workforce of 54, to keep up with rising demand.

The manufacturer of power management and power generating systems, which this year marks a century in business, has contributed to every nuclear submarine that’s been built, Sposato said. It started design work for the next-generation Columbia-class submarine in 2015 and has been ramping up since 2016.

With 98% of its business for the military, PEPCO also has built co-generation plants and fuel recovery systems for the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, he said.

The Submarine Industrial Base Council said that as demand for submarines continues to increase, the state of the submarine industrial base has been identified as the “key enabler of this growth.”

“More than two decades of low-rate submarine production has resulted in a fragile industrial base with many single or sole source suppliers,” it said.

Over the next five years, supplier-provided material is expected to increase by more than 200% to support the demands of the Virginia Class and Columbia Class programs. Significant funding has already been allocated to develop the capacity of more than 170 suppliers in 28 states, it said.

The submarine industrial base is still recovering after losing thousands of suppliers since the end of the Cold War, the industrial base council said.

Stephen Singer can be reached at ssinger@courant.com.