The Hidden Army Building America’s Submarines

Electric Boat’s huge submarine workload is now tied to more than 27,000 workers, a record-sized industrial base that helps keep the Navy’s undersea fleet moving.

At a Glance

The Navy’s latest package covers **five Columbia-class** and **nine Virginia-class** submarines, with work stretched into the late 2030s.
Electric Boat says its main work is spread across **Groton, Quonset Point, and New London**, with more than 23,000 employees on the company’s own site.
Public reporting says Electric Boat planned to hire about **8,000** new workers as demand rose.
The record also shows a shared industrial model, with Virginia-class work split with **Newport News Shipbuilding**.

What the New Contract Really Shows

The latest Navy award is not just a ship order. It is a long industrial commitment that includes submarine construction, supplier support, and yard readiness. Senator Jack Reed said the package is meant to spur serial production of the Columbia and Virginia classes and support the wider submarine supply chain. General Dynamics Electric Boat also said the work stretches across several sites and will keep production busy for years.

That matters because submarine building is slow, complex, and heavily dependent on skilled labor. Electric Boat’s own materials say it has supplied Virginia-class submarines for 20 years and serves as the prime contractor for the Columbia-class program, which the Navy treats as a top strategic priority. The company’s history page says past contract work was linked to wage upgrades and infrastructure investment, which shows the yard is being managed as a long-term production system, not a one-time project.

Why the Workforce Draws So Much Attention

Electric Boat’s employee count is part of the story because the company itself says it has more than 23,000 workers, while local reporting says the total has risen above 27,000. NBC 10 WJAR reported that the company planned to hire about 8,000 new workers and was already more than halfway there, though that figure came from an executive statement rather than audited payroll data. Even so, the scale of hiring shows how strained the labor side has become.

The firm’s sites also show how spread out the work has become. Electric Boat says its main operations are in Groton, Quonset Point, and New London. Reporting on the 2026 contract said more than half of the work will be done across Groton, Quonset Point, and Newport News, and that Electric Boat shares Virginia-class construction with Newport News Shipbuilding. That means the submarine force depends on a network, not a single yard.

Why This Story Goes Beyond One Company

The broader point is that the Navy’s submarine program now rests on a large, fragile industrial base. The contract package includes funding for productivity, infrastructure, and supplier growth, which suggests the Navy sees labor and facilities as real bottlenecks. Electric Boat’s own materials and past awards show the same pattern: major 2014, 2019, and 2025 contract wins, plus a long run of Virginia-class and Columbia-class work. This is a long-term buildout, not a brief surge.

The Navy has officially executed a historic $76.6B contract award to Electric Boat for construction of nine Block VI Virginia-class submarines and five Build II Columbia-class submarines. Congress authorized these contract awards in 2023 and 2025, respectively.

Today in Groton,… pic.twitter.com/GC6fkYRj2f

— Rep. Joe Courtney (@RepJoeCourtney) July 30, 2026

That said, the available record does not prove that worker count alone is what makes the submarine force “one of a kind.” The sources show a large workforce, major contracts, and shared production lines, but they do not provide audited proof that headcount is the decisive factor over design, management, supplier health, or Navy oversight. What the evidence does show is more basic and more important: the Navy cannot sustain this force without a deep, heavily staffed industrial base.