General Dynamics Electric Boat

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General Dynamics Electric Boat (GDEB) is the United States’ main submarine builder and a subsidiary of General Dynamics. It began in 1899 when Isaac Rice started the Electric Boat Company to develop John Philip Holland’s submarine designs. The first submarine built was Holland VI, which became the USS Holland and was commissioned in 1900. Electric Boat operates a shipyard in Groton, Connecticut; a hull-fabrication and outfitting facility in Quonset Point, Rhode Island; and a design and engineering center in New London, Connecticut. In the early days the company licensed designs to foreign navies, including the United Kingdom, Japan, Russia, and the Netherlands.

From 1907 to 1925, Electric Boat helped design submarines for the U.S. Navy and subcontracted much of their construction. During World War I, the company and its affiliates built numerous submarines and submarine chasers for the United States. In the 1930s, the Nye Committee examined Electric Boat for its role in naval arms proliferation and private armaments deals.

In 1952, Electric Boat became part of General Dynamics, and the submarine business later adopted the Electric Boat name. It built the first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus, which was launched in 1954, and the first ballistic-missile submarine, the USS George Washington, in 1959. The company later produced submarines in the Ohio, Los Angeles, Seawolf, and Virginia classes. Nautilus was moved to a museum in Groton in 2002.

Since 1974, Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding have been the two main U.S. submarine builders. In 2014, Electric Boat won a $17.8 billion contract for ten Virginia-class Block IV submarines, the Navy’s largest single shipbuilding contract. In 2019, work began on the Block V Virginia-class submarines, which include a payload module for Tomahawk missiles.

The company faced welding defects and cost-overrun issues in the 1980s, leading to a major settlement with the Navy and indictments of executives involved in the problems. Today, Electric Boat employs more than 14,000 people. Its president is Mark Rayha. The company remains the primary builder of U.S. Navy submarines.