Carol L. Cook
And, how does this Aerospace Industry affect cur State of Connecticut and our local economies? We see headlines like “100 jobs cut by Sikorsky,” which tell us that since Defense cuts, Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford has had to lay off workers. Senator Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn. says, “Around here, you can never be sure if cuts were made, because someone didn’t work hard enough to protect their programs. We have to be ready to put up a fight.” He continues, “You’re going to have jet engines coming up; you are going to have Seawolf coming up; you’re going to have Tridents coming up; you’re going to have tank engines coming up. At least when you consider our larger programs, we build the kinds of basic systems that are not under attack. There will be a debate about how many jets to build, but there will be jets. It’s ‘How many submarines do we need?’ Not, ‘Let’s stop building submarines.”’
If the success of Connecticut’s Defense Industry is based on luck, the state has been extremely lucky for a very long time. It is consistently among the largest recipients of Pentagon work to prime contractors, last year receiving more than $6 billion.
Its principal prime contractors include Pratt & Whitney based in East Hartford, which builds jet engines for the Air Force and Sikorsky Aircraft of Stratford, which builds helicopters for all the services. Also, Electric Boat in Groton builds Los Angeles, Seawolf and Trident submarines for Navy and Textron-Lycoming builds turbine engines for the Army.
The state also got another $6 billion in Defense sub-contracts last year. The industry’s prime contractors and larger sub-contractors employ about 134,000—about one worker in 12. Its indirect influence is vast, though harder to measure. The industry funnels work to hundreds of shops, vendors and service providers statewide.