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, contribute more than half of the 33,000 defense jobs in CT. Defense represents over $3.3 Billion annually in economic impact in Southeastern CT.
In addition to these two large employers, there are numerous medium and small sized firms that provide subcontracting both locally and in the neighboring state of Rhode Island. These include:
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 this cluster is the significant presence of Homeland Security facilities: