TIGHITCO, an advanced manufacturing company serving aerospace, defense and industrial customers, is making a $3 million investment in Connecticut to locate production lines for a new 10-year, $500 million Navy contract.
The South Carolina-based company says its Berlin facility won out over other locations including California and Texas to site the work. The contract is likely to generate at least 20 new positions.
The investment is supported by a $500,000 grant from the state of Connecticut’s Strategic Supply Chain Initiative program.
The production lines will support a major award from the U.S. Navy for its Long Endurance Electronic Decoy (LEED) program, which is being led by Lockheed Martin. The LEED program is an unmanned vehicle that draws enemy fire away from Navy ships by creating a false radar signal that mimics actual ships.
TIGHITCO’S Vice President of Business Development Malissa Nesmith said the company does a lot of work on Sikorsky’s huge CH-53K King Stallion heavy-lift helicopter contract in Connecticut.
“Sikorsky is a huge customer of ours out of the Berlin facility and over the years has been our top customer out of that facility. So moving in the Lockheed Navy programs was a pretty natural progression,” she said.
TIGHITCO is also participating in a federally funded effort to develop new ways to manufacture composite materials, strengthen the Navy’s supply chain and expand U.S. production capacity.
AdvanceCT, the state’s business development organization, was part of the effort to bring the work to Connecticut, facilitating TIGHITCO’s application for state grants. AdvanceCT Vice President of Business Development Ted Fisher says he’s not surprised the state won the work.
“Connecticut has an ecosystem of aerospace and defense capabilities, which is really a high concentration of companies,” Fisher said. “We also have a very skilled workforce and workforce is a challenge across the country.”
TIGHITCO expects to have the production lines up and running by the third quarter of 2027.
