ARLINGTON, Va. — The shipbuilding company that will lead design and construction of the Navy’s next-generation ballistic-missile submarine (SSBN) and the new payload module for the Virginia-class attack submarine (SSN) expects to increase the size of its workforce over the next 15 years.

“The Ohio Replacement Program and Virginia Payload Module are expected to increase Electric Boat’s workforce from 14,000 to 18,000 between now and the 2030 timeframe,” Ken Blomstedt, General Dynamics Electric Boat vice president for the Virginia Class Program, said in an e-mail response to Seapower.

The Ohio Replacement SSBN will be the successor to the Ohio-class SSBN, which will reach the end of its service life in the early 2030s.

Electric Boat will divide the work on the Ohio Replacement in a similar manner that it does with the Virginia-class SSN with Huntington Ingalls’ Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va.

“The workload division will be similar to the Virginia program,” said Will Lennon, General Dynamics Electric Boat vice president for Engineering and Design Programs, also in the e-mail response. “Newport News Shipbuilding will provide the bow, sail, superstructure, auxiliary machinery rooms, weapons, and parts of the stern. Electric Boat will construct the rest of the submarine and will deliver all Ohio replacements from its shipyard in Groton, Conn.”