Manufacturers in Connecticut: jet engines, submarines and the precision shops that supply them

This report is for aerospace and defense buyers looking for Connecticut suppliers, for engineers and machinists weighing jobs, for analysts, and for B2B sellers who serve the state's plants. It covers the official count, the planning regions and industries, the public companies headquartered in the state, the defense plants owned from elsewhere, where to find and vet suppliers, and a prospecting plan.

Connecticut manufacturing in numbers

Connecticut's totals from the US Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP), covering NAICS sectors 31 to 33:

In our ranking of the state file, Connecticut is 28th by manufacturing employees and fourth by average manufacturing pay. Manufacturing is 10.3% of the jobs CBP counts in the state, above the national 8.8%.

CBP counts establishments, locations with paid employees, for the week of March 12, 2023. A shop with buildings in Bristol and Plainville counts twice, a corporate head office in Stamford is classed as a management office, and owner-only shops aren't included.

Nine planning regions

The Census Bureau now reports Connecticut by its nine planning regions, which have replaced counties as the state's county-level areas in federal statistics.

Pay is our calculation from the CBP county file, which sums to one fewer establishment than the state total. The Census Bureau published Southeastern Connecticut's employee figure but flagged it as high-noise (noise added for confidentiality changed it by 5% or more), so we don't report it. The Capitol region has 29% of the plants and the most jobs. Naugatuck Valley, around Waterbury, has the second-most plants but smaller ones (30 employees on average). The Western region pays the most, $105,451.

What Connecticut makes

Transportation equipment is 30% of the state's manufacturing jobs in just 146 plants. The detailed codes show the aerospace chain:

Connecticut also has nine aircraft plants and four shipbuilding yards, whose employee figures are high-noise and not shown.

Size

The 1 to 19 group combines 1,262 plants with 1 to 4 employees, 712 with 5 to 9 and 588 with 10 to 19. In all, 877 have 20 to 99 employees and 296 have 100 or more.

Public manufacturers headquartered in Connecticut

SEC EDGAR lists 44 companies with a listed ticker, a manufacturing SIC code (2000 to 3999) and a Connecticut business address. The largest, each checked against its latest Form 10-K:

EDGAR lists Sturm, Ruger at its Mayodan, North Carolina plant, but its 10-K gives Southport, Connecticut as its principal executive offices, so we've included it. We left out Compass Diversified (Westport), a holding company. Revenue is company-wide.

The biggest plants belong to companies based outside the state. General Dynamics' 10-K lists Groton, New London and Waterford, Connecticut among its Marine Systems locations; its Electric Boat unit is the lead shipyard for all Navy nuclear submarine programs. Lockheed Martin lists Stratford, Connecticut as a principal site of its Rotary and Mission Systems business.

Finding and vetting Connecticut manufacturers

1. Search the supply chain platform. CONNEX Connecticut, powered by CONNSTEP, is free to all Connecticut manufacturers and searchable by capabilities, equipment, NAICS codes and certifications.
2. Use the associations. The Connecticut Business and Industry Association is the statewide business group; ManufactureCT runs peer networks, plant tours and a searchable member directory.
3. Get improvement help. CONNSTEP, in Hartford, is the state's NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership center, including cybersecurity and CMMC support for defense suppliers.
4. Confirm the entity. The state's business records search shows a company's registration and status.
5. Check certifications and safety. For aerospace work ask for AS9100 and, for defense programs, the supplier's CMMC status. Connecticut's OSHA state plan covers only public employees, so private plants fall under federal OSHA, whose Establishment Search lists inspections.

For investment and expansion news, AdvanceCT works with companies growing in the state.

Prospecting Connecticut manufacturers

The subcontractors live on prime contracts, so their year runs on new part numbers, rate increases and audits. A shop that just won a new engine or submarine part, added a five-axis machine or is hiring a quality engineer is a shop with a reason to talk.

Worked example: a CMMC readiness consultancy

Illustrative example. Nutmeg Cyber and its close rates are made up; the plant counts are Census figures.

Nutmeg Cyber Compliance (nutmegcyber.example) prepares defense subcontractors for CMMC assessments and targets machining and aerospace parts plants with 20 to 249 employees.

• Connecticut plants with 20 to 249 employees: 578 + 299 + 209 = 1,086.
• Machine shops, precision turned product makers, metal stampers and aircraft parts and engine plants are 313 + 135 + 63 + 37 + 35 = 583 of 3,735 plants (16%), so about 170 fit on size and industry.
• The Capitol region has 29% of the state's plants, giving about 50 accounts for the first quarter.
• If one in five takes an assessment call and half of those buy a readiness project, that's about five clients from the first region.

The research is finding which shops hold defense work and face an assessment soon. Bebop can search for "Connecticut aerospace machine shops with 20 to 249 employees that supply engine or submarine programs and are hiring a quality or IT manager" and write a playbook for each.

Subject: CMMC timing for [Company]

Hi [first name],

Shops supplying [engine / submarine] programs are getting CMMC questions in their purchase orders now, and the assessment usually lands on whoever runs IT part-time.

We prepare Connecticut machine shops your size for assessment and hand over the system security plan and evidence, not just a gap report. Would a 30-minute call to see where you stand be useful?

[Your name], Nutmeg Cyber Compliance

For Connecticut companies in every industry, see companies in Connecticut; for the biggest aerospace names nationally, see the largest aerospace companies.

Next step: to reach the right person at a supplier or plant, use how to find decision makers.