Connecticut defense contractors and military personnel across the state stand to benefit from billions of dollars in Pentagon spending under an $895 billion defense authorization bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday.

Among the biggest beneficiaries of the National Defense Authorization Act is the state’s southeast corner, with its booming shipbuilding industry and the U.S. Navy submarine base in Groton.

Between the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics, the Navy’s lead submarine builder, and the sub base, the region is targeted for in excess of $16 billion. Besides funding new subs, the bill provides for pay raises for shipyard workers, support for local schools and a 14.5% pay increase for junior enlistees at the base, a priority of Connecticut U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd, one of the bill’s authors.

“There’s no question that these provisions are sorely needed and welcomed among the thousands of submariners and their families in eastern Connecticut as well as residents who serve in other branches of the military,” said Courtney, an influential figure in Naval shipbuilding as ranking member of the House Armed Services’ seapower subcommittee.

“The bill also authorizes funding for two Virginia class submarines, rejecting the Navy’s completely inadequate budget request submitted last February,” he said. “The bill boosts the Virginia account and extends new latitude to submarine shipbuilders to increase wages for frontline shipyard workers.”

Also included in the bill, which is expected to be passed by the Senate, is about $3.3 billion for the state’s aerospace industry. Sikorsky Aircraft is the big beneficiary of aerospace money, getting more than $2 billion for 20 King Stallion and 24 Blackhawk helicopters. Kaman and Pratt and Whitney also receive funding.

Southeast Connecticut benefits disproportionately in next year’s defense priorities because of its position at the center of the biggest expansion of the U.S. Naval fleet since the Reagan administration in the 1980s. After decades of flat, post-cold-war defense spending that included little or nothing for shipbuilding, the Navy is racing to expand U.S. leadership in undersea warfare to balance Chinese expansion in the Indo-Pacific.

In addition to satisfying its own security interests in eastern Asia, the U.S. is committed to selling from three or five of the state-of-the-art Virginia class attack submarines being built at Electric Boat to Australia under the China-inspired AUKUS security agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the U.S.

The Navy wants a fleet of 66 Virginia-class attack submarines, which now cost about $4.3 billion each, and a dozen Columbia class missile subs, at more than $10 billion each. EB is the Navy’s prime contractor on both classes and is working with Huntington Ingalls Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia.

There has been widespread concern that the two shipyards, having languished from inactivity during the post Cold War era, cannot redevelop the industrial capacity necessary to build enough submarines quickly enough to meet national defense needs. EB has been hiring and training shipbuilders at a rate of 5,000 a year in an effort to speed production. It now employs 23,000 and is targeting a workforce of 33,000.

The Navy said the shipyards need to produce Virginia-class ships at a rate of 2.3 a year, well above the current production rate of about 1.5 a year.

Courtney has been a leading voice among those arguing that the shipyards, with support from the Navy, can meet the production target. The defense authorization bill includes measures he pressed to help the shipyards do so.

Chief among them is money that restores funding for a second Virginia submarine in fiscal 2025. The White House and Navy cut the second sub in their budget proposal, asserting the the shipyards had fallen behind schedule and needed to catch up. Courtney led the effort to restore it with the argument that EB and its hundreds of subcontractors needs the Navy to follow a consistent and reliable production schedule in order for them to confidently commit to expanding their workforces.

The budget also commits the Navy to providing EB and Newport News with the means of increasing salaries of shipyard workers, something Courtney called “a critical element to improving recruitment and retention among the metal trades.”

Complicating recruitment efforts, according to a Navy study, is the narrowing gap between salaries paid to shipyard workers and those employed in other industries. A wider gap in favor of steelworkers 40 years ago during the last push to rapidly rebuild the U.S. submarine force made recruitment easier. EB recently built generous raises into shipyard contracts to retain workers and attract recruits.

Other elements of the bill benefit the regional economy. There is a $2 billion investment by the Navy in equipment that improves efficiency and production at EB and Newport News. School systems in Groton and Ledyard get $70 million over current spending to support the education of Navy children. There is nearly $2 billion for research and development of improvements to existing submarine capabilities and development of a new class of submarine, now known as the SSN(X).

Although there is wide support for the defense spending in Congress, there was a flap as the vote was called late Wednesday over coverage of gender-affirming care for transgender children under the military’s Tricare health plan. A provision in the bill says “treatment of gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization may not be provided to a child under the age of 18.”

The House approved the 1,800 page bill 281-140. Most Democrats voted no because of the gender treatment provision. Joining 200 Republicans in the majority were 81 Democrats, including Courtney.

_____

©2024 Hartford Courant. Visit courant.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.