General Dynamics Electric Boat President Mark Rayha speaks during the submarine manufacturer’s legislative briefing at the Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa in Groton, Connecticut, Monday, March 23, 2026. General Dynamics Electric Boat’s hiring and production plans for 2026 were discussed at the meeting. (Dave Zajac/Hearst Connecticut Media)
GROTON – Submarine maker General Dynamics Electric Boat announced Monday it plans to hire about 8,000 workers this year, an ambitious hiring goal that reflects strong demand in the shipbuilding industry.
The new hires will include approximately 2,250 employees at the company’s shipyard in Groton for final assembly and testing; 3,250 at the Quonset Point, R.I., shipyard for module manufacturing; 1,000 engineering and design positions at the New London office; and 1,500 support staff at the Groton and Quonset Point centers. The company will more than double its total of 3,345 employees last year.
“We are in a period of unprecedented growth in demand for submarines,” Electric Boat President Mark Rayha said during a legislative briefing and breakfast at the Groton Marriott Mystic Hotel & Spa. “You’ve seen the growth in headcount … we need more, so we’re going to continue to hire.”
Rayha said the company’s recruitment pipeline included more than 15,000 applicants over the past two years and it has hired more than 1,200 employees so far this year.
Electric Boat officials did not specify how much they expect the company’s headcount will grow with hiring this year. The company has approximately 24,000 employees, approximately 16,000 of whom are located in Connecticut, making it one of the largest private sector employers in New England.
The company is in the midst of one of its busiest periods ever. Recent milestones include last December’s delivery of the 14th Virginia-class fast attack submarine, the future USS Idaho aircraft carrier. The Idaho is scheduled to be commissioned next month and will follow the Iowa, which was commissioned last April.
Electric Boat, meanwhile, aims to deliver another Virginia-class ship, the future USS Utah, by the end of this year and the future USS Arizona in 2028. The Arizona will be the first ship in the Block V group of Virginia-class ships. Typical features include the Virginia Payload Module (VPM), which contains a large-diameter vertical launch tube that can launch Tomahawk missiles or other payloads.
Meanwhile, Electric Boat is building the first batch of next-generation Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines. The Navy originally planned to spend $130 billion to purchase 12 Columbia ships, but the first of them, the future USS District of Columbia, “was expected to be delivered more than a year later and cost hundreds of millions of dollars more than planned,” according to a 2024 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Officials at Electric Boat and its parent company, General Dynamics, acknowledged that there have been supply chain issues and workforce challenges in recent years due in large part to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. But Reha expressed confidence in the company’s ability to meet production targets in the coming years.
“When you walk through the shipyard, she looks like a ship,” Reha said of the future DC. “The government asked us, ‘We need VPM, we need DC by 2028.'” They’d love to get it early. I think we’re committed to that and we’re going to do everything we can to make that happen. “
Current events have highlighted the need for electric boat output. U.S. Navy actions in the war with Iran included a submarine torpedoing and sinking an Iranian warship. Pentagon officials have not revealed the identity of the submarine. However, Electric Boat’s status as one of two designers and builders of nuclear-powered submarines in the United States, along with Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Virginia, means that Electric Boat most likely contributed to the submarine’s production.
“Congress understands how critical submarines are to our strategy — not just now, not just in one part of the world, but around the globe, especially where our adversaries are trying to gain advantage,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said at a news conference. “China and Russia understand it, too; our adversaries understand it, too. We are in a real submarine arms race with them.”
Another strong backer of Electric Boat is U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, a Democrat whose district covers southeastern Connecticut. Courtney said his advocacy includes efforts to secure an increase of $1.9 billion for the Virginia-class program in the final fiscal year 2026 defense budget “exceeding the president’s request” and an additional $285 million for advance procurement of the Columbia-class program.
“This is not a rubber stamp,” said Courtney, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee on Seapower and Delivery Forces. “When it ended, we spent a lot of time dealing with the program executive offices at Virginia and Columbia just to make sure we didn’t have deficiencies, or if there were issues, we needed to correct them.”
Congress also provided funding to improve wages in the shipbuilding industry. For example, wage increases in the five-year contract for Electric Boat’s roughly 2,500 maritime draftsmen approved last May were supported by a $12.4 billion contract modification awarded to Electric Boat around the same time that included more Virginia-class products.
“In order to achieve our recruitment target of 8,000 people, it’s important to make sure people understand the value of this work,” Courtney said. “They have a contract in place for the next five years and the salary will gradually increase.”
Several local and state officials also spoke at the event, expressing their desire to work on issues such as workforce development and transportation to support the development of electric boats. State Sen. Cathy Osten, a Sprague Democrat who co-chairs the Assembly Appropriations Committee, said her goal is to support increased funding for technical high schools and increased investment in middle and comprehensive high schools.
“We know it’s critical for young people to have a job, and a job that allows them to support their families and support their families,” Osten said.
Meanwhile, Electric Boat is expanding its own infrastructure. These projects include last year’s acquisition of Crystal Mall in Watford. The company plans to redevelop the property, with occupancy expected as early as mid-2027.
“The mall became an empty lot, but its infrastructure is great. It has a lot of parking, which is always expensive for a shipyard,” Reha said. “We’re not going to do a lot with the exterior architecture — the signage … the landscaping. But internally, we’re going to do some things that will allow us to create state-of-the-art lab space, state-of-the-art training space.”
This article was originally published on Groton-based submarine maker Electric Boat announces plans to hire 8,000 workers: ‘Unprecedented growth’.
