America’s submarine industry comes to Hartford

Whether watching March Madness, the Super Bowl, or even the Oscars, TV viewers in Connecticut for the last three years have been saturated with ads by America’s premier submarine builder, Electric Boat, offering job seekers an opportunity to embark on good-paying careers.

BuildSubmarines.com , a national campaign funded by the U.S. Navy, has echoed this push with logos on the ballfields at Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium and the WNBA floor at Mohegan Sun arena in Uncasville. This unprecedented effort is visible proof that a huge hiring spree is underway, as Congress and the Navy are in a full-throttle push to recapitalize our nation’s undersea fleet. Make no mistake, it is also proof that this is not just a regional phenomenon. The volume of work will require people and supply chain support from across Connecticut.

On July 15 in East Hartford, the Navy, industry, and workforce experts came together to launch “Hire Hartford” which signals the geography and demography of submarine construction will extend beyond the shoreline and into Connecticut’s capital region.

This new initiative, made possible by federal funding we secured , will raise awareness for careers in submarine manufacturing, skill up students and workers of all ages, and connect them to good-paying careers at Electric Boat and suppliers statewide.

Last year, Electric Boat made record strides in building up its workforce with 5,300 new employees and is on track to hit 5,200 new employees this year between the Groton and Quonset Point shipyards. Over the next decade, the submarine industrial base will need to hire 100,000 trained workers at both primary construction yards in Connecticut and Virginia and another 17,000 people at supply chain vendors nationwide.

The Columbia program has been the Pentagon’s and the Navy’s top priority to replace the aging Ohio class submarines. These vessels of technological wonder, which are two and half times larger than a Virginia class submarine, will require a substantial and dedicated workforce well into the 2040s to meet the one boat per-year build rate requested by the Navy beginning in fiscal year 2026. Columbia construction will continue alongside a projected two-per-year construction rate of the Virginia program until 2040 when the Navy expects to begin construction of the Virginia’s successor at a two-per-year cadence well into the 2050s.

In 2021, the United States also entered into a historic trilateral security agreement with Australia and the United Kingdom, called AUKUS . The mission is focused on strengthening collaboration between the three countries to combat China’s coercive and illegal behavior in the Indo-Pacific. It is widely recognized that the Virginia class submarine is the queen of the chessboard in terms of deterring this behavior and protecting peace and prosperity in the region. As part of the AUKUS mission, Congress has authorized the United States Navy to sell three Virginia submarines to Australia to recapitalize the nation’s aging diesel-powered fleet and strengthen our great ally’s presence in the Indo-Pacific.

Fulfilling the Columbia and attack submarine missions, as well as meeting our AUKUS obligations, requires a manufacturing workforce and supply chain that has not been seen in America since the Cold War era.

To meet these workforce demands, manufacturers must expand their recruiting radius beyond traditional shoreline hiring markets.

In 2023, the Navy launched Project Providence — similar to Hire Hartford — to increase the submarine industrial base workforce in Rhode Island. The campaign significantly boosted training and hiring outcomes, leading to 155 accepted offers at Electric Boat’s 2023 and 2024 Rhode Island Signing Day compared to just 14 accepted offers in 2022.

Days ago, the Biden-Harris administration delivered $50 million to Michigan to train workers at local community colleges in skills for maritime construction, particularly welding and machining. The Navy has also targeted funds in areas with high concentrations of submarine suppliers, including Virginia, Pennsylvania, Long Island, and across the Gulf Coast. These efforts are part of a larger $15 billion commitment from the Navy and Congress to ultimately increase the build rate of our two submarine programs.

And through the AUKUS mission, more investments are in the pipeline. Australia has committed to invest $3 billion in the U.S. submarine industrial base in recognition of the historic undertaking, which will turbocharge American manufacturing capacity, joint research partnerships in academia and industry, job creation, and workforce development initiatives like Hire Hartford.

After decades of a decline in American manufacturing, students and workers in Connecticut’s capital region, and Americans from coastal towns to Midwest communities, are beginning to see more opportunities for good-paying careers across the submarine industrial base. This renaissance in American manufacturing will strengthen our Navy’s fleet and protect Americans at home and abroad.

U.S. Rep. John Larson represents Connecticut’s 1st Congressional District and U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney represents the 2nd District.