Southern New England hosts a broad-ranging ecosystem, including small-to-large businesses, that presents a rich opportunity for DoD.  The region has seven commercial ports, near-shore access to deep water, world-class manufacturing and research facilities, an ocean workforce of over 54,000 people, and a strong inter-state commitment to commercializing ocean technology. It’s home to hundreds of companies in marine science, robotics, and composites, as well as a broader ocean technology supply chain of 8,294 companies.

The ecosystem is oriented towards established weapons systems such as shipyard construction and subcontract suppliers for the Virginia and Columbia Class submarine programs, as well as major defense aerospace manufacturers.  The region also hosts over 300 businesses focused on innovative military-applicable technology involving autonomous maritime and aviation vehicles, counter-unmanned systems initiatives, and associated technologies such as artificial intelligence for autonomous systems, advanced sensors, advanced composites, and even fabric-embedded antennae and sensors that integrate seamlessly with many autonomous vehicle construction techniques. 

The region’s composite companies have pivoted from ocean vessels to underwater vehicles, based on demand.  In FY2022, the states of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts received $41.3 Billion in defense-related Federal contracts, and between 2020-2022, prime contracts for defense-related goods and services went to 5,821 businesses in the region.  The Southern New England region’s clear strengths in automation, robotics, undersea technology, manufacturing, composites, and ocean engineering are an outgrowth of our location, defense industry presence, and decades-long investment in the marine sciences.  

These characteristics are deployed along over 400 miles of coastline in Rhode Island alone. Combined with numerous coastal and inland high-tech research-and-development laboratories, the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration created the Rhode Island Ocean Tech Hub, and major corporations like Anduril and Saab are establishing production facilities for autonomous undersea vehicles to take advantage of the resources here in Rhode Island.