NEWPORT – The Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport saw a $200 million increase in its economic impact on the state from last year, as well as a $99 million jump in contracts spent for services.
The division announced Thursday that it reached $1.7 billion in economic impact for the 2023 fiscal year and $1 billion helped fund contracts. In the 2022 fiscal year, NUWC’s economic impact was $1.5 million and $901 million funded contracts.
NUWC says out of $1 billion that was spent on contracts in 2023, small business obligations accounted for about $545 million. About 92.9% of NUWC’s contract obligations paid for new services in Rhode Island and 95.7% of the 2023 fiscal year contracts were competitively awarded, the division says.
Last year, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps represented NUWC’s largest customer base with $862 million in funding spent, NUWC says. Also, NUWC says it contracted for approximately 2,990 work years from Oct. 1, 2022, through Sept. 30, 2023, from companies located in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, which brought its combined government, military and contractor workforce to 6,632 positions.
“NUWC Division Newport has a tremendous impact on our local, state and regional economies,” NUWC Technical Director Marie Bussiere said in a statement. “It’s a great example of how important the work is at Division Newport, especially regarding our nation’s security and support of the U.S. Navy fleet.”
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.