Listen to this articleGiven the region’s long history with the U.S. defense industry, it’s no surprise that a recent recruiting drive from the sector’s manufacturers is targeting Long Island.
Riders on the Long Island Rail Road may have seen the ads offering rewarding careers at buildsubmarines.com, which turns out to be a central job portal created by BlueForge Alliance, a nonprofit defense industry group that supports the U.S. Navy and maritime manufacturing.
Based in Bryan, Texas, BlueForge Alliance acts as a “neutral integrator” to ensure industry has the capability and capacity to build and maintain the Navy’s next generation of undersea platforms.
“BFA builds partnerships, scales manufacturing technologies, and creates pathways such as buildsubmarines.com to attract the more than 140,000 skilled workers needed to transform the U.S. shipbuilding industry over the next decade,” said a BFA spokesman.
Long Island’s history with submarines began in 1899 when New York City-based Holland Torpedo Boat Company had six of its Navy-commissioned subs stationed in New Suffolk through 1905. Since then, there have been several area companies involved in the manufacture of sub and ship components.
“Long Island is home to skilled trades workers in close proximity to many of our maritime industrial base suppliers and shipbuilders supporting the U.S. Navy,” the spokesman said. “BlueForge Alliance aims to connect Long Islanders with the thousands of stable careers available in that region.”
Local companies with job listings on buildsubmarines.com include BAE Systems in Greenlawn; Mill-Max Manufacturing in Oyster Bay; TTM Technologies, Legrand North America and Curtiss Wright in Farmingdale; L3 Harris in North Amityville; Lockheed Martin in Uniondale; Advanced Energy Industries in Ronkonkoma; Dayton T. Brown in Bohemia; and many more.
In Hauppauge, GSE Dynamics, in coordination with the Long Island Manufacturing Consortium, was named a lead on the submarine industrial base initiatives as the Local Partner Engagement Coordinator in May 2023 and has since worked closely with Navy leadership to drive the workforce efforts, the supplier development efforts, and the overall marketing and branding efforts in coordination with BlueForge Alliance.
“We are working to attract, retain and drive career pathway conversations as companies look to hire more people in the defense industrial base sector,” said Anne Shybunko-Moore, principal and CEO of GSE Dynamics. “In addition to hiring more people, we are looking to expand capability and capacity to ensure Long Island continues to be seen as an industrial base hub. The buildsubmarines.com effort has been successful in raising awareness about our industry. We have developed a strong network of companies engaged in the submarine industrial base and are looking to further expand our collaboration with BlueForge Alliance to help meet the demand signals required by the Navy on critical applications that are manufactured here on Long Island.”
The submarine industrial base consists of more than 15,000 suppliers across the U.S., and they need to fill about 140,000 positions over the next 10 years to reach the Navy’s demand for next generation submarines, according to the BFA spokesman. Earlier this month, BFA announced it has been awarded a Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) contract to support planning, resourcing, coordinating, and uplifting the U.S. Submarine Industrial Base (SIB) and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) requirements. The two-year contract includes initial funding of $503 million, with a total cumulative value of up to $980 million.
And while its recruiting effort is nationwide, Long Island remains an important target for talent.
“It should come as no surprise that the defense industry would be looking to recruit people here on Long Island,” said John Duffy, business manager and treasurer for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 138 headquartered in Farmingdale. “We know from our own union membership that we have some of the most skilled people in the nation with a work ethic other parts of the country can only wish for. You could say it’s about patriotism and productivity.”