KITTERY, Maine — The new commander of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard says 350 workers are going to be added this year to handle the growing workload.
Capt. David Hunt also tells The Portsmouth Herald that he wants all three of the shipyard's dry docks to be capable of handling Virginia-class submarines. Currently two of the three dry docks can handle the newer Virginia-class submarines.
Hunt became the shipyard's 85th commander of the facility, which is the nation's oldest, continuously operating U.S. Navy shipyard.
The shipyard repairs and overhauls nuclear-powered submarines and its current workforce stands at 5,400 people. The shipyard is set to begin construction later this year on new barracks for sailors stationed at the yard during submarine overhauls.
