Electric Boat highlights workforce future in R.I.

KEVIN GRANEY, president of General Dynamics Electric Boat, said the company will hire 18,000 workers in the next decade. / COURTESY ELECTRIC BOAT

WARWICK – General Dynamics Electric Boat plans to more than double its workforce in the next decade, including adding 1,500 jobs at its Quonset Business Park facilities by 2024, President Kevin Graney said Monday.

Speaking at the company’s annual legislative briefing, Graney noted that a majority of the 18,000 jobs the company plans to add by 2030 will be high-skilled workers in positions like nuclear welding, electrical work and pipe-fitting – with salaries to match the skills required by their positions.

“These are not just jobs, these are vocations,” Graney said.

Details on short-term hiring plans for the coming year were not released, in part a function of the late nature of contracts signed in 2019, according to the company.

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To achieve this long-term ambitious workforce growth, Graney emphasized the need for a larger pool of qualified candidates. Both Graney and Gov. Gina M. Raimondo praised the workforce training programs – including the state’s Real Jobs RI program and those at local colleges and universities – for fueling Electric Boat’s existing workforce. Graduates of local colleges and workforce training programs produced 1,300 Electric Boat employees in the last five years.

Electric Boat employs 16,800 workers – a majority in Groton, Conn. as well as 4,050 at the Quonset Business Park in North Kingstown and 50 in Newport – the highest level of employment since 1993, Graney said.

Virginia-class fast-attack submarines for the U.S. Navy have long-served as the “bread and butter” of the federal contractor and will continue to provide a source of steady employment through 2034. This is thanks in part to a recently awarded $22.2 billion contract  – the largest in shipbuilding history – to build nine Block V Virginia-class submarines over the next 10 years. Eight of these nine will include the Virginia Payload Module, an in-design addition to Block V submarines that increases fixed-strike capacities, among other enhancements.

Quonset, where the company builds modules for submarines sent to Connecticut for assembly, delivered 12 Virginia-class submarine models in 2019 and is forecast to complete another 12 this year, Graney said.

Quonset is also heavily involved in the design and early construction phases for 12 new Columbia-class submarines – which host ballistic missiles – with 650 employees involved currently. The new submarines- which are as long as the height of the Washington Monument – will replace existing Ohio-class submarines beginning in 2027, Graney said. Production on the first Columbia-class submarine will begin this October with delivery scheduled through 2035.

“For the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union, we’re experiencing a return to great power competition,” Graney said. “This changing threat environment has the potential to increase the relevance of submarines and the need for more undersea capability.”

With that in mind, the company plans to invest nearly $2 billion in expanding its shipyard facilities, including several new buildings at Quonset Business Park in 2020. In 2019, the company completed two major facilities at Quonset this year dedicated to the VPN submarines and module-building, respectively.

As part of efforts to grow its supplier base, Electric Boat has invested $18 billion to 2,200 suppliers over the last five years, including $200 million in orders to 106 Rhode Island-based suppliers.

Raimondo expressed “mixed reactions” about reaching the highest level of production of warfare submarines since the Cold War. But she added that she was proud to have Electric Boat in Rhode Island and pledged support for the state workforce training programs that would provide the company with the qualified workers it needs to grow.

U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse – typically in attendance for Electric Boat’s annual briefing – were in Washington D.C. Monday for the impeachment trial. But other members of the state’s congressional delegation as well as state government and business leaders were eager to share commendations for Electric Boat.

“The work you do is not only important to our economy but to the defense of our country,” said U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I.

Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Lavin@PBN.com. Follow her on Twitter at @NancyKLavin.

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