General Dynamics Electric Boat is today the leading contractor for the U.S.
Armed Forces for the construction of submarines as well as upgrades, overhauls
and maintenance of the existing fleet.. They are based at Groton,
Connecticut and their main building facility is Quonset Point in Rhode
Island.
It was founded on 1899 as The Electric Boat Company by Isaac Rice for the
purpose of the construction of John Phillip Holland's submersible vessel (The
Holland) which was incorporated into the U.S. Navy in the year 1900, beginning
in this mode the U.S. Submarine Forces. During WWI, the company was
asked for the commission of 85 submarines and one of its subsidiaries got the
task of building submarine chasers.
After WWII, Electric Boat pursued a number of non military projects and in
1954, the world first nuclear powered submarine, The Nautilus was
built in only three years. Most of the leading submarine classes in the
U.S. Navy were designed or built by Electric Boat: Los Angeles fast
attack class, the Tridents, the Seawolf and the Virginia, the Navy's
newest line of submarines.
Today, the process of building a submarine can take up to six years from the
contract acceptance to the final commissioning of the new ship. It takes
a lot of research and testing, even for the construction of existing
models. Not only they build for the U.S. Navy, they are also contracted by
foreign governments and private entities.
Electric Boat is part of General Dynamics, one of the leading companies in
the manufacture of naval and aviation equipment, as well as other mission
critical systems.
Main Source: The Electric Boat Web Site. http://www.gdeb.com