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'General Dynamics Corporation' () is a defense conglomerate formed by mergers and divestitures, and as of 2006 it is the sixth largest defense contractor in the world^[2]. 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.

Contents

Marine Systems

Combat Systems

Information Systems & Technology

Aerospace

History

Legacy and Acquisitions

Divestitures

Corporate governance

Financials

References

External links

Marine Systems

★ American Overseas Marine Corporation

★ Bath Iron Works

★ Electric Boat

★ National Steel and Shipbuilding Company

Combat Systems

★ General Dynamics Land Systems

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★ General Dynamics Robotic Systems (GDRS)

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★ Autonomous Navigation System (ANS)

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★ M1 Series Abrams Main Battle Tank

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★ M1A2 Series Abrams Main Battle Tank

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★ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

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★ Heavy Assault Bridge program

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★ Stryker Armored Combat Vehicle

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★ Crusader Self-Propelled Howitzer

★ General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products

★ General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems

★ General Dynamics European Land Combat Systems

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★ Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeug GmbH (formerly Steyr-Daimler-Puch prior to 1998)

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★ Mowag corporation

Information Systems & Technology

★ General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems

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★ Jobs in GD AIS

★ General Dynamics C4 Systems

★ General Dynamics Information Technology

★ General Dynamics United Kingdom

★ General Dynamics Wireless Systems

Aerospace

★ Gulfstream Aerospace

History

Legacy and Acquisitions

★ 1899 - Electric Boat was established and became General Dynamics in 1952

★ 1946 - Canadair purchased from the Canadian government

★ 1953 - Convair merged with General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation

★ 1959 - Henry Crown acquires company and becomes majority shareholder.

★ 1962-1963 - Convair-produced Mercury-Atlas rockets launches four manned Mercury missions into low Earth orbit, including John Glenn.

★ 1971-1985 David S. Lewis, Jr., was chairman and chief executive officer. During his tenure, General Dynamics’ revenues and earnings quadrupled.

★ 1982 - Formed General Dynamics Combat Systems after the acquisition of Chrysler's combat systems.

★ 1995 - Acquired Bath Iron Works from Prudential Insurance, established in 1890

★ 1996 - Acquired Teledyne Vehicle Systems.

★ 1997 - Acquired Lockheed Martin Defense Systems and Lockheed Martin Armament Systems.

★ 1997 - Acquired Advanced Technology Systems, formerly an operating unit of Lucent Technologies.

★ 1997 - Acquired Computing Devices International, formerly a division of Ceridian Corporation.

★ 1998 - Acquired National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, established in 1905.

★ 1999 - Acquired Gulfstream Aerospace from Forstmann Little, the company was founded in 1958.

★ 1999 - Acquired GTE Government Systems, Communication Systems, Electronic Systems and Worldwide Telecommunication Systems Divisions.

★ 2001 - Acquired Galaxy Aerospace Company from Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI)

★ 2001 - GD Decision Systems formed (and later merged with General Dynamics C4 Systems) after acquisition of Motorola's Integrated Information Systems Group.

★ 2002 - Acquired Advanced Technical Products.

★ 2003 - Acquired GM Defense from General Motors.

★ 2003 - Acquired Steyr Daimler Puch Spezialfahrzeug (SSF) from an Austrian investor group, which bought the company in 1998 from the Steyr-Daimler-Puch-conglomerate. SSF is now part of ''"General Dynamics European Land Combat Systems"'' which includes also the Spanish Santa Bárbara Sistemas and the Swiss MOWAG, and has its headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

★ 2003 - Acquired Veridian and Digital Systems Resources.

★ 2003 - Acquired Datron’s Intercontinental Manufacturing Company (IMCO) Unit.

★ 2004 - Acquired Spectrum Astro.

★ 2005 - Acquired FC Business Systems.

★ 2005 - Acquired Tadpole Computer.

★ 2006 - Acquired Anteon International.

Divestitures

★ Coal mining

★ Building materials

★ Limestone

★ Concrete

★ 1967 - General Atomics to Gulf Oil

★ 1976 - Canadair sold back to the Canadian government.

★ 1981 - Following expropriation legislation passed by the government of the Province of Quebec, General Dynamics' Canadian subsidiary sold its 54.6% controlling interest in Asbestos Corporation Limited to the Quebec government-owned creation, ''Société nationale de l'amiante'' (SNA).

★ 1991 - Data Systems Division outsourced to Computer Sciences Corp.

★ 1992 - Tactical Missiles Division to Hughes Aircraft Company.

★ 1992 - Cessna to Textron.

★ 1993 - Fixed-wing military aircraft to Lockheed.

★ 1993 - Space Systems Division to Martin Marietta.

★ 1994 - Convair's aerostructures unit to McDonnell Douglas, (Convair closed in 1996).

Corporate governance

Current members of the board of directors of General Dynamics are: Nicholas Chabraja, James Crown, Lester Crown, William Fricks, Charles Goodman, Jay L. Johnson, George Joulwan, Paul Kaminski, John Keane, Lester Lyles, Carl Mundy, and Robert Walmsley.

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 ^[1].

References

1. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=GD
2. 2005 Defense News Top 100


★ Patents owned by General Dynamics Corporation. US Patent & Trademark Office. URL accessed on 5 December 2005.

★ 'International Directory of Company Histories' under General Dynamics Corporation, St. James Press/The Gale Group. Also, International Directory of Company Histories, volume 86, under General Dynamics/Electric Boat Corporation. Published July, 2007, pp.136-139.

★ '"Who Built Those Subs?",' by 'John P. Holland's' primary biographer and submarine historian, Dr. Richard Knowles Morris, PhD; Published by The United States Naval Institute Press in Naval History Magazine - October 1998 (125th Anniversary issue).

★ ' The Defender: ''The Story of General Dynamics''', by Roger Franklin, published by Harper&Row 1986.

External links

★ General Dynamics Corporation website

★ General Dynamics Corporation Company Profile (Yahoo! Finance)

★ Biography of one of the company's founders, 'Arthur Leopold Busch' (U.S. Navy)