HARTFORD — Submarine maker Electric Boat, enjoying a boom in military demand, said yesterday it will buy a research and development site from drug manufacturer Pfizer Inc. for a major expansion in southeastern Connecticut.
Parent company General Dynamics Corp. will spend $99 million to buy and develop the New London site and upgrade two buildings used by Electric Boat in nearby Groton. The state Department of Economic and Community Development also will give Electric Boat $15 million over three years for construction, equipment purchases, and other activities.
The purchase price for the property will not be disclosed until the closing in a month or two, said Electric Boat president John P. Casey.
Electric Boat said it will create 700 jobs, adding to its current 2,300 engineers and more than 8,000 employees in Connecticut. The hiring of engineers, designers, and others is a reversal from a few years ago when members of Congress and military analysts said submarines were less important in the fight against terrorists or the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq than during the Cold War.
