The president of Electric Boat says he’s continuing to monitor the situation on tariffs, but he believes any trade sanctions will not have an immediate effect on the submarine builder.
“Most of the components that we’re getting we’ve already acquired,” said Mark Rayha, referring to the big block contracts the yard is currently working on for Virginia and Columbia class boats.
“It’s certainly an item that we’re going to have to keep an eye on as we go forward in time and be able to manage as it comes,” he said, noting that the potential impact on EB’s supply chain is less certain.
Rayha was speaking at the shipyard’s 2025 legislative update event, his first as president since he took over in December of last year.
But Rayha said the impact of tariffs is just part of a larger picture of inflationary pressures on the long-term Navy contracts that the yard relies on.
“These are contracts we signed prior to the pandemic, in 2019,” he said. “So it’s not just tariffs impacting it, but it’s also the cost of goods all over the place. It’s a broader question on what the cost of this product is going to be as we go forward.”
Electric Boat has been lobbying for more support from Congress to take account of rising costs.
Between the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act and the recent continuing resolution that has kept the federal government funded until March, Congress has appropriated $24 billion in additional funding.
Hiring at the yard has been on a downward trajectory in recent years, with 5,300 hired in 2023, 4,100 last year, and a projected 3,050 for 2025. But Rayha sounded a bullish note on the company’s future, saying the yard workload will continue to increase in coming decades.
“What’s gone on in New England and especially in Connecticut is the envy of the nation in terms of how to go and develop a workforce and put people on the job,” he said.
Rayha responded to a question from state Sen. Cathy Osten (D-Sprague) about the ongoing shortage of local housing for the Electric Boat workforce.
“I think we’ve got to keep ourselves focused on building submarines,” he said. “The housing is of course important, but it’s a little bit out of our lane. We support where we can.”
He said he wants to continue to improve wages at the yard to the point where local housing is more affordable for the workforce.
Osten said she hopes that state housing funding agencies, including the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, will take note of the additional need for affordable housing in southeastern Connecticut.
