While others contract, EB is ramping up for growth

SUB DIVISION: Kevin J. Poitras, president of General Dynamics Electric Boat, says that hiring for Quonset Point and Groton shipyard trades and designers is mostly all local. / COURTESY ELECTRIC BOAT
SUB DIVISION: Kevin J. Poitras, president of General Dynamics Electric Boat, says that hiring for Quonset Point and Groton shipyard trades and designers is mostly all local. / COURTESY ELECTRIC BOAT

It’s a strange and wonderful time at Electric Boat. While most of the American defense sector contracts under federal budget cuts, the Groton, Conn.-based submarine builder is starting its largest expansion in a generation. At the company’s North Kingstown plant, Electric Boat is scaling up from 2,500 workers to potentially twice that number over the next eight years to develop the nation’s next ballistic-missile submarine. After years of cutbacks at Electric Boat, President Kevin J. Poitras is drawing on his 40 years of experience, which included the submarine arms race against the Soviet Union, to manage this new growth period.

PBN: Since you took over last year, have you introduced any new strategies at Electric Boat or are you continuing the course the company has been on?
POITRAS: The management of EB, because of the nature of the work, I would call it seamless. But we are coming out of a very low-rate production period where we came down to a low point in construction at both Groton and Quonset Point in 2005. The Virginia-class submarine was in design in the early 1990s and the lead ship started construction in 1998 for delivery in 2004. When you got to 2000, the Navy did not start another design. The shipyard went five years in the late 1990s without delivering a ship. We went from 28,000 people at Electric Boat to 7,000 or 8,000 people. Quonset Point went from 3,000 or 4,000 down to less than 1,000. Our whole company contracted. So the new direction is we are getting into two submarines-a-year production rate. And because we have started the Ohio-class replacement design in 2010, we have been able to build the engineering workforce back up. We have hired 4,500 people since 2008 and have a little less than 12,000 total.

PBN: So while most other defense contractors are cutting way back, you are scaling way up. What is that like? POITRAS: We are re-engineering for growth. Unless you have been here almost as long as I have – when I started in 1973 there were about 9,000 people here and Quonset didn’t exist; then we grew making Tridents and 688s until the end of the Cold War – a lot of people who have been here 15 or 20 years remember how we re-engineered for low-rate production.

PBN: Do you hire locally, regionally or nationally.
POITRAS: For Quonset Point and Groton shipyard trades and designers it is mostly all local. For engineering we hit the maritime schools and local colleges – the University of Connecticut and University of Rhode Island – mostly Midwest, East Coast areas.

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PBN: Do have difficulty finding quality people?
POITRAS: No. I think the available workforce is more than sufficient to handle any of our needs and we hire a good balance. We haven’t hired in a long time and many of our people are senior in their positions, so we can bring in young people and get them the right training.

PBN: We just went through the sequester cuts and it looks like Electric Boat came through unscathed. Is that right?
POITRAS: In the appropriations bill that went through, our programs were pretty well-supported because our congressional delegation supports us so well. One area where cuts have been made that does affect us directly is in the Groton waterfront. When we don’t deliver a ship we have to find repair work or we have to lay people off or furlough. We were assigned the restoration of submarine Miami, the sub that had the fire in Portsmouth; that ship is still up there. We have been assigned that work and have short-term maintenance availabilities in our yard that last six to nine months. Sequestration cuts back that operating and maintenance money and we expect there is a possibility that the money for the Miami will take a hit and our Groton trades will take a hit. So we are watching that very closely.

PBN: Looking further out, do you think with the size of the military overall being reduced that at some point there will be more cutbacks in nuclear submarines like at the end of the Cold War?
POITRAS: The major engineering program we have, the Ohio replacement, is our strategic deterrent and having one is the No. 1 priority. The last time a new missile boat was designed was 40 years ago. So I think that program is on a solid foundation and not at the top of a cut list. That doesn’t mean it will never be affected, because you can never say never, but right now it is very well-supported. … Our last ship, the Mississippi, was $60 million under budget and a year ahead of schedule. So from a performance standpoint, the Navy is getting value for its investment.

PBN: How long will you be working on the Ohio replacement?
POITRAS: Right now we have 1,700 people working on the design and numerous vendors working on developmental components and subsystems for the ship. We have totally redesigned our approach to building missile compartments that is very innovative. We intend to build a qualification unit at Quonset with the raw-material manufacturing in 2015. So it is not that far away, [with] lead ship construction starting in 2021 [and] long-lead material and manufacturing going back to 2019. An Ohio replacement is like doing two Virginias, man-hour wise. That will cause another step up in facilities and manning. Right now Quonset Point is 2,500 people and that could double by 2021. •

INTERVIEW
Kevin J. Poitras
Position: President of General Dynamics Electric Boat
Background: A Massachusetts native, Poitras started in the shipyard at Electric Boat as an engineer 40 years ago and moved his way up to the corner office last May.
Education: Bachelor’s of science in marine engineering from Maine Maritime Academy, 1973
First job: paper route
Residence: Connecticut (declined to disclose where for security reasons)
Age: 62

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