General Dynamics

Type: Public
Founded: Falls Church, Virginia (February 21, 1952)
Headquarters: Falls Church, Virginia
Key people: Nicholas D. Chabraja, Chairman and CEO
Industry: Defense
Products: Conglomerate
Website: www.gd.com

General Information

General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE: GD) is a defense conglomerate formed by mergers and divestitures, and as of 2006 it is the sixth largest defense contractor in the world. The company has changed markedly in the post-Cold War era of defense consolidation. The company has four main business segments: Marine Systems, Combat Systems, Information Systems and Technology, and Aerospace. The company's former Fort Worth Division manufactured the F-16, the most-produced Western jet fighter, but that subsidiary was sold to Lockheed in 1993.

The company was formed in 1952 from a merger of submarine contractor Electric Boat Company (founded 1899) and Canadair (founded 1944), though Electric Boat had owned controlling interest in Canadair since 1946. The Electric Boat Company is the founding unit and parent company to General Dynamics. Electric Boat is the nucleus around which General Dynamics has grown. The company can trace its origins back to February 7, 1899, when it was incorporated as Electric Boat in the state of New Jersey.

Financials

General Dynamics has about $12 billion in sales, primarily military, but also civilian with its Gulfstream Aerospace unit and conventional ship-building and repair with its National Steel and Shipbuilding subsidiary.

In 2004 General Dynamics bid for the UK company Alvis Vickers, the leading British manufacturer of armoured vehicles. In March the board of Alvis Vickers voted in favour of the £309m takeover. However at the last minute BAE Systems offered £355m for the company in what was seen as a move to keep General Dynamics out of its 'back yard'. This deal was finalised in June 2004.

General Dynamics has tried to acquire Newport News Shipbuilding but been blocked by regulators and competitors, as this would make General Dynamics the sole manufacturer of nuclear-powered ships in the United States.

Controlled subsidiaries of the corporation are donors to the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute.