Matt Mulherin, president of Newport News Shipbuilding, announced last week in a letter to shipbuilders that more than 500 employees will be laid off in 2015, and likely more than 1,000 employees will be laid off in 2016.

EB and Newport News are partners in building the Virginia-class nuclear attack submarines.

The layoffs in the shipyard in Virginia are part of cost cuts the company is making because of a reduced workload building carrier ships over the next 18 months, Christie Miller, media relations manager for Newport News, said in an email, but the "cost reductions should have no impact on our partnership with (Electric Boat) or our workload on submarines.

"We fully expect to maintain our strong partnership and performance with EB and maintain our VCS workload during this period," Miller said.

According to EB's website, "under the terms of a $4.2 billion contract awarded by the Navy in 1998, an $8.4 billion multi-year contract awarded in January 2004 and a $14 billion multi-year contract awarded in December 2008, Electric Boat is sharing construction of the first 18 ships of the class with its teammate, Huntington Ingalls-Newport News Shipbuilding."

In April 2014, a $17.6 billion contract, the largest single shipbuilding contract in the Navy's history, was awarded to EB for construction of 10 Virginia-class attack submarines. Under that contract, EB and Newport News will build two submarines per year from 2014 through 2018.

j.bergman@theday.com

Twitter: JuliaSBergman