Portal:General Dynamics
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Introduction
General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American aerospace and defense multinational corporation formed by mergers and divestitures. It is the world's fifth-largest defense contractor based on 2012 revenues. The company ranked No. 99 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. It is headquartered in West Falls Church, Fairfax County, Virginia.
The company has changed markedly in the post–Cold War era of defense consolidation. It has four main business segments: Marine Systems, Combat Systems, Information Systems Technology, and Aerospace. General Dynamics' former Fort Worth Division manufactured the F-16 Fighting Falcon until 1993, which was one of the Western world's most-produced jet fighters. Production was sold to Lockheed Martin, but GD re-entered the airframe business in 1999 with its purchase of Gulfstream Aerospace.
Selected general articles
Jay L. Johnson (born June 5, 1946) is a retired United States Navy admiral who served as the 26th Chief of Naval Operations from 1996 to 2000. He was later President and Chief Executive Officer of General Dynamics. Read more...- The Expeditionary tank was a United States light tank developed for the Armored Gun System competition in the 1980s by Teledyne Vehicle Systems (now L3 Communications Combat Propulsion Systems). Read more...
The amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) in dry dock at NASSCO shipyard in San Diego. The 840-foot ship is the largest that can be accommodated in NASSCO's drydock.
National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, commonly referred to as NASSCO, is an American shipbuilding company with three shipyards located in San Diego, Norfolk, and Mayport. It is a division of General Dynamics. The San Diego shipyard specializes in constructing commercial cargo ships and auxiliary vessels for the US Navy and Military Sealift Command; it is the only new-construction shipyard on the West Coast of the United States. The Virginia shipyard primarily performs ship repairs and conversions for the U.S. Navy. Read more...
The IAV (Interim Armored Vehicle) Stryker is a family of eight-wheeled armored fighting vehicles derived from the Canadian LAV III. Stryker vehicles are produced by General Dynamics Land Systems Canada for the United States Army. It has 4-wheel drive (8×4) and can be switched to all-wheel drive (8×8).
The vehicle is named for two unrelated American servicemen who posthumously received the Medal of Honor: Private First Class Stuart S. Stryker, who died in World War II, and Specialist Four Robert F. Stryker, who died in the Vietnam War. Read more...
M1A2 Abrams with prototype Tank Urban Survival Kit armor upgrade equipment and Common Remotely Operated Weapons Station (CROWS), with a .50 caliber machine gun at the commander's station
The M1 Abrams is an American third-generation main battle tank named for General Creighton Abrams. Highly mobile, designed for modern armored ground warfare, the M1 is well armed and heavily armored. Notable features include a powerful AGT1500 multifuel turbine engine, sophisticated composite armor, and separate ammunition storage in a blow-out compartment for crew safety. Weighing nearly 68 short tons (almost 62 metric tons), it is one of the heaviest main battle tanks in service.
The M1 Abrams entered U.S. service in 1980, ultimately replacing the M60 tank. The M1 is the main battle tank of the United States Army and Marine Corps, and is also used by the armies of Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Australia, and Iraq. Read more...
Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation is an American wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics.
Gulfstream designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and services business jet aircraft. Gulfstream has produced more than 2,000 aircraft since 1958. Gulfstream's range consists of the G280, G350, G450, G500, G550, G600, and G650, G650ER. Read more...
Jet Aviation is a Basel-based business aviation services company. One of the industry's largest, it was founded in Switzerland in 1967 and today is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD). Aircraft maintenance, completions and refurbishment, engineering, fixed-base operations, along with aircraft management, charter services, aircraft sales and personnel services are provided by some 5,600 employees at 26 airport facilities throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North and South America. Jet Aviation's European and U.S. aircraft management and charter divisions jointly operate a fleet of more than 200 aircraft. Read more...- Bowman is the name of the tactical communications system used by the British Armed Forces.
The Bowman C4I system consists of a range of HF radio, VHF radio and UHF radio sets designed to provide secure integrated voice, data services to dismounted soldiers, individual vehicles and command HQs up to Division level. Bowman has a number of specific applications installed on the base radio infrastructure known as BISAs. Bowman has been released incrementally as a number of phased capability releases, known as BCIP releases, with BCIP 5.5 being released in the field in 2013. Read more...
George Alfred Joulwan (born November 16, 1939, Pottsville, Pennsylvania) is a retired United States Army general. He finished his military career as the Commander-in-Chief, United States European Command and Supreme Allied Commander (SACEUR) in 1997.
Over a military career spanning 36 years, General Joulwan fought in Vietnam, Panama, and El Salvador. As the Supreme Allied Commander, he conducted over 20 operations in the Balkans, Africa, and the Middle East. When the United States sent forces into Bosnia in the 1990s, General Joulwan played the leading role in troop deployment, earning praise by President Clinton upon Joulwan's retirement. Read more...
General Lester L. Lyles (born April 20, 1946) is a former United States Air Force general, Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, and Commander, Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. After retirement from the Air Force in 2003, he became a company director for General Dynamics, DPL Inc., KBR Incorporated, Precision Castparts Corp., MTC Technologies, Battelle Memorial Institute and USAA. Lyles is also a Trustee of Analytic Services and a Managing Partner of Four Seasons Ventures, LLC. Read more...- Charles M. Goodman (November 26, 1906 – October 29, 1992) was an American architect who made a name for his modern designs in suburban Washington, D.C. after World War II. While his work has a regional feel, he ignored the colonial revival look so popular in Virginia. Goodman was quoted in the 1968 survey book Architecture in Virginia as saying that he aimed to "get away from straight historical reproduction."
Goodman, who designed the original National Airport outside of Washington, D.C. and served as main architect of the Hollin Hills neighborhood in Alexandria, Virginia, attended the Illinois Institute of Technology. He came to D.C. in 1934 to work as the designing architect in the Public Buildings Administration. He later served as head architect at the United States Treasury Department and the Air Transport Command. After World War II he worked closely with Robert C. Davenport designing and site planning most of the Hollin Hills, where his firm, Charles M. Goodman Associates, designed over 14 models of house. Read more...
A F-111 during an air-to-air refueling mission over the North Sea.
The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark was a supersonic, medium-range interdictor and tactical attack aircraft that also filled the roles of strategic nuclear bomber, aerial reconnaissance, and electronic-warfare aircraft in its various versions. Developed in the 1960s by General Dynamics, it first entered service in 1967 with the United States Air Force. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) also ordered the type and began operating F-111Cs in 1973.
The F-111 pioneered several technologies for production aircraft, including variable-sweep wings, afterburning turbofan engines, and automated terrain-following radar for low-level, high-speed flight. Its design influenced later variable-sweep wing aircraft, and some of its advanced features have since become commonplace. The F-111 suffered a variety of problems during initial development. Several of its intended roles, such as an aircraft carrier-based naval interceptor with the F-111B, failed to materialize. Read more...- Carl Epting Mundy Jr. (July 16, 1935 – April 2, 2014) was a United States Marine Corps general who served as the 30th Commandant of the Marine Corps and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from July 1, 1991 until his retirement on June 30, 1995, after 42 years of service.
From 1996 to 2000, Mundy served as president and CEO of the United Service Organizations. He was also the chairman of the Marine Corps University Foundation, and served on a number of corporate boards. Read more... - James Schine Crown (born June 25, 1953) is an American businessman and heir. He is president of Henry Crown and Company, a family investment company. He is a director of JPMorgan Chase & Co., General Dynamics and Sara Lee. He is also the managing partner of the Aspen Skiing Company. Read more...
The Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) (formerly known as the Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle) was an amphibious assault vehicle developed by General Dynamics during th 1990s and 2000s for use by the U.S. Marine Corps. It would have been launched at sea, from an amphibious assault ship beyond the horizon, able to transport a full Marine rifle squad to shore. It would maneuver cross country with an agility and mobility equal to or greater than the M1 Abrams.
The EFV was designed to replace the aging AAV-7A1 Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV), which entered service in 1972, and was the Marine Corps' number one priority ground weapon system acquisition. It was to have had three times the speed in water and about twice the armor of the AAV, as well as superior firepower. The vehicle was to be deployed in 2015; however, on 6 January 2011, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recommended the EFV program be canceled. The program, which was projected to cost $15 billion, had already cost $3 billion. Read more...
Vice Admiral Sir Robert Walmsley KCB, FREng, FRSA, FIET (born 1 February 1941) was Chief of Defence Procurement at the UK Ministry of Defence from 1996 to 2003, and is a retired Vice-Admiral in the Royal Navy. Read more...
Mowag (sometimes MOWAG) is a Swiss company which develops, designs and produces armoured vehicles for military applications in both land-only and amphibious configurations. These vehicles have gross vehicle weights ranging from 9 t to 30 t. More than 12,000 armoured wheeled vehicles of the type Piranha, Eagle and DURO are in operation worldwide with a large number of armed forces. The company is owned by General Dynamics, and is now known as GDELS-Mowag. Read more...
Bath Iron Works (BIW) is a major United States shipyard located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine, founded in 1884 as Bath Iron Works, Limited. BIW has built private, commercial, and military vessels, most of which have been ordered by the United States Navy. The shipyard has built and sometimes designed battleships, frigates, cruisers, and destroyers, including the Arleigh Burke class which are currently among the world's most advanced surface warships.
Since 1995, Bath Iron Works has been a subsidiary of General Dynamics, the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world as of 2008. During World War II, ships built at BIW were considered to be of superior toughness by sailors and Navy officials, giving rise to the phrase "Bath-built is best-built." Read more...
John M. Keane (born February 1, 1943) is a retired American four-star general and former Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army, and a defense analyst currently serving as chairman of the board for the Institute for the Study of War. Read more...- Lester Crown (born June 7, 1925) is an American businessman and is the son of Chicago financier Henry Crown (died 1990), who created Material Service with two brothers in 1919, which merged with General Dynamics in 1959.
Crown has been a perennial member of the Forbes 400 list since 1982. He controls family holdings, including large stakes in Maytag, Hilton Hotels, Alltel, Aspen Skiing Company, New York's Rockefeller Center, and pro basketball's Chicago Bulls. He also holds a stake in the New York Yankees, being a Partner since 1973. Presumably, the large stake held in Bank One at the time of the 2003 Forbes 400 listing has converted to JPMorgan Chase stock and was derived from an interest in First Chicago Bank, which was enumerated in the 1998 Forbes 400 list as First Chicago NBD shares. Recent achievements include brokering a controversial agreement to expand O'Hare International Airport, and spearheading the funding of the new Cook County Hospital (Stroger Hospital). He is a major benefactor of Jewish charities, universities and the Aspen Institute. He is the chairman of the Commercial Club of Chicago and Chicago Council on Global Affairs. His current hometown is Wilmette, Illinois. Read more...
General Dynamics Mission Systems is a business unit of American defense and aerospace company General Dynamics. General Dynamics Mission Systems integrates secure communication and information systems and technology. General Dynamics Mission Systems has core manufacturing in secure communications networks; radios and satellite technology for the defense, cyber, public safety, and intelligence communities. Read more...
General Dynamics Electric Boat (GDEB) is a subsidiary of General Dynamics Corporation. It has been the primary builder of submarines for the United States Navy for more than 100 years. The company's main facilities are a shipyard in Groton, Connecticut, a hull-fabrication and outfitting facility in Quonset Point, Rhode Island, and a design and engineering facility in New London, Connecticut. Read more...
The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics (now Lockheed Martin) for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successful all-weather multirole aircraft. Over 4,500 aircraft have been built since production was approved in 1976. Although no longer being purchased by the U.S. Air Force, improved versions are being built for export customers. In 1993, General Dynamics sold its aircraft manufacturing business to the Lockheed Corporation, which in turn became part of Lockheed Martin after a 1995 merger with Martin Marietta.
The Fighting Falcon's key features include a frameless bubble canopy for better visibility, side-mounted control stick to ease control while maneuvering, a seat reclined 30 degrees to reduce the effect of g-forces on the pilot, and the first use of a relaxed static stability/fly-by-wire flight control system which helps to make it a nimble aircraft. The F-16 has an internal M61 Vulcan cannon and 11 locations for mounting weapons and other mission equipment. The F-16's official name is "Fighting Falcon", but "Viper" is commonly used by its pilots and crews, due to a perceived resemblance to a viper snake as well as the Colonial Viper starfighter on Battlestar Galactica. Read more...- Nicholas D. Chabraja (pronounced cha-brah-ya) (born November 6, 1942 in Gary, Indiana) is an American lawyer and former Chief Executive Officer of General Dynamics Corporation. Read more...
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In 1999 the company acquired Gulfstream Aerospace. Here, a Gulfstream G650 departs Bristol Airport, England in 2014.
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