Electric Boat says it will hire 400 people, invest in $45 million facility

NORTH KINGSTOWN – Making good on a pledge delivered last January, submarine maker Electric Boat said Tuesday it planned to hire 400 workers at its Quonset Business Park facility.
Groton, Conn.-based Electric Boat, which is owned by General Dynamics, delivered the news during a business outlook meeting at the Quonset plant, said spokesman Robert Hamilton.
The company also announced plans to construct a $30 million, 144,000-square-foot manufacturing facility to accommodate the new workers. EB will invest another $15 million in outfitting the building with the required equipment and technology. EB hopes to open the building by November.
The new hires, expected to occur by the end of 2012, will support the shipyard and its supporting operations. The move will bring total employment at the site to about 2,500, Hamilton said. The hiring process is already under way, he added.
At a similar briefing last year, executives unveiled plans to boost employment at Quonset by about 400 people during a two-year period. The company has benefited by a Congressional decision that authorized the Navy to increase its production of Virginia-class submarines to two a year from one, Hamilton said.
Electric Boat President John Casey said the company also expects to benefit from a Navy decision to order two new submarines used for training at a South Carolina Naval station. The company will make some of the components in Quonset.
The defense contractor also hopes to broaden its reach into the commercial nuclear power plant industry. Hamilton said Casey told meeting attendees that Electric Boat already knew how to build 2,000-ton modules for nuclear-powered submarines.
“That same concept is the only way we will redevelop commercial nuclear power in the country,” Casey said.
Hamilton said Casey cautioned that plans to enter the market remained tentative, and he set no timeline for chasing business in the commercial sector.