In the early 1990’s, southeastern Connecticut was recognized as the most defense dependent region in the nation. With the end of the Cold War, significant downsizing has occurred, and the regional economy has adjusted accordingly. 

Today, the two cornerstone elements of southeastern Connecticut’s Defense Cluster, the Naval Submarine Base in Groton and General Dynamics/Electric Boat contribute more than half of the 33,000 defense jobs in CT, in the economy of which Defense representsto over $3.3 billion annually.

 In addition to these two large employers, there are numerous medium and small sized firms that provide subcontract support both locally and in the neighboring state of Rhode Island.   These include Sonalysts, Yardney Technical Products, General Physics, EG & G, and McLaughlin Research.

There is measurable  overlap between this cluster and the Maritime Cluster in such areas as shipbuidling, manufacturing, training, and engineering services.  Not to be overlooked in thiscluster isthe significant presence of Homeland Security facilities including the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and the U.S. Coast Guard Research & Development Center.