A Berlin manufacturing plant just landed one of the biggest contracts in its history: a $500 million deal with the U.S. Navy that's expected to bring about 40 new jobs to Connecticut and reshape what gets built on the factory floor. The work involves something straight out of a military thriller — unmanned vehicles engineered to throw off enemy radar by mimicking real Navy ships.
The contract belongs to TIGHITCO, described as an industrial and aerospace manufacturing company with two facilities in Connecticut, according to fox61.com. The Berlin plant will manufacture the unmanned vehicles, which are designed to create false radar signals that mimic actual Navy ships — a decoy system meant to confuse adversaries tracking the fleet. The award came from Lockheed Martin and is expected to increase work at the Berlin facility by 25 percent, the station reported.
A Boost Years in the Making
The Navy contract follows a state-backed expansion that TIGHITCO had already set in motion earlier this year. Back on July 22, the company announced it was expanding its advanced composite manufacturing capabilities at the Berlin facility, according to a statement posted on TIGHITCO's website. That expansion was backed by a $500,000 grant from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, intended to help support the company's $1.8 million capital investment in Berlin.
TIGHITCO also credited a separate $500,000 state grant through the Strategic Supply Chain Initiative with helping make the broader expansion possible, per the station's report. The company has said the Berlin buildout is meant to strengthen its support for current and future U.S. Navy programs. TIGHITCO describes itself as a U.S. manufacturer of advanced composite structures and assemblies, thermal insulation systems, precision sheet metal fabrication, and aerospace manufacturing support services.
Timeline to Production
Workers won't be building the decoy vehicles right away. TIGHITCO expects to have production lines up and running by late 2027, the station's report notes, giving the company roughly a year to scale hiring and retool its Berlin operation for the new Navy work.
Part of a Statewide Surge
TIGHITCO's win lands amid a broader boom for Connecticut's aerospace and defense sector. Commercial and military aerospace demand are surging at the same time, according to Hartford Business Journal, which reported that Connecticut exported $430 million in aircraft parts in June, up 21.4 percent from the same month a year earlier. Aircraft parts were the state's largest export category in 2025, totaling $5 billion.
Other Connecticut defense suppliers are riding the same wave. Hartford Business Journal reported that Pratt & Whitney has received more than 800 orders for its geared turbofan engine since the start of 2026 and was separately awarded a $1.3 billion contract to produce spare parts for the F135 engine used in the F-35 Lightning II. Sikorsky, meanwhile, is working through a $10.85 billion, five-year Navy contract to build up to 99 CH-53K heavy-lift helicopters, the outlet noted.
Smaller players are cashing in too. Triumph Engine Control Systems LLC, which operates facilities in West Hartford and Windsor employing a combined 660 workers, recently secured a U.S. Army contract worth up to $24.3 million for enhanced digital engine control units, with work scheduled for completion by October 30, 2028, Hartford Business Journal reported. That contract followed a similar one the company won in December 2024.
Why Connecticut Keeps Winning Defense Work
The state's aerospace and defense footprint helps explain why contracts keep flowing to places like Berlin. Connecticut supports more than 113,000 aerospace and defense jobs and generates $63.8 billion in economic output, according to the Aerospace Industries Association as cited by AdvanceCT. The state is home to more than 250 aerospace and defense manufacturing establishments supporting nearly 50,000 direct manufacturing jobs, and it ranks first in the nation in aircraft engine and engine-parts manufacturing by both employment and economic output. Connecticut also accounts for more than 16 percent of all U.S. shipbuilding and repair activity, per the same source.
For Berlin, the TIGHITCO deal is a concrete local payoff from that statewide momentum — new jobs, a busier factory floor, and a Navy program that, by late 2027, will have Connecticut-built machines designed to make enemy radar see ships that aren't really there.
