About the Company
Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, General Dynamics Corporation or GD is a defence and aerospace company. As of 2019, it was considered one of the top defence contractors not only in the United States but across the world. It has about 102,900 employees working in more than 45 countries around the globe.
It offers its products and services to five different industries including combat systems, marine systems, mission systems, information technology and aerospace. The company designs combat vehicles, jet aviation, ships, weapon systems, munitions and an array of other defence-related products. GD also offers IT and C4ISR solutions and ships repair services to its customers. As of 2020, it is providing its services to several countries across Europe, South America, North America and Australia.
GD has ten separate businesses operating under it as of 2019 - GDIT, NASSCO, Jet Aviation, Gulfstream, General Dynamics Land System, Electric Boat, Bath Iron Works, General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, General Dynamics European Land Systems and General Dynamics Mission Systems. It is a component in both the S&P 100 and S&P 500 indices and trades in the New York Stock Exchange under the trading symbol GD. It is the 8th company in the 200 Fortune 500 list and Fortune has also recognised it in its Global 500 and World’s Most Admired Companies lists in 2020.
The company was incorporated after a merger between Electric Boat and Canadair, a submarine manufacturer and aircraft manufacturer respectively, in 1952. The very next year General Dynamics acquired Atlas Group’s Convair and started its long journey of acquisitions. Its next significant purchase took place in 1982 when it acquired Chrysler Defence and Formed General Dynamics Land Systems. Throughout the rest of the 20th century, it acquired companies like Cessna Aircraft Company, Bath Iron Works, Lucent Technologies’ Advanced Technology Systems, Ceridian’s Computing Devices International, NASSCO, GTE Government Systems etc.
From the beginning of the 21st century, it became more interested in purchasing related businesses to become a major name in the industry. Between 2001-2020 it acquired businesses such as Motorola integrated Systems in 2001, EWK Eisenwerke Kaiserslautern in 2002, Digital Systems Resources and Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeug in 2003, MOWAG in 2004, Jet Aviation in 2008, Metro Machine Imperial Docks in 2011, Hawker Pacific in 2018, etc.;
Organisation | General Dynamics Corporation |
Industry | Aerospace & Defense |
HeadQuarters | Reston, VA |