General Dynamics is a global aerospace and defense company involved in the space industry through its General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS) business unit. GDMS provides spaceborne communications, electronics, and mission systems, including satellite payloads, ground systems, and engineering services for government and commercial customers like NASA and the U.S. Navy. They develop technology for satellite communication, tracking, telemetry, and control, and have contributed to missions like Apollo, Artemis, and the International Space Station. Key words associated with General Dynamics in space are: satellite communications, ground systems, mission operations, space exploration, and national security.
Identity changes, mergers, acquisitions, splits, and transferred business lines.
11 events
General Dynamics acquired IT services company CSRA Inc. for $9.7 billion in 2018 -- the largest acquisition in General Dynamics' history -- merging it into General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT).
Scope: Gulfstream (100% transferred)
Whole-company stock-for-stock merger; Gulfstream continued operating under its own name as a GD subsidiary.
General Dynamics and Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation completed their merger July 30, 1999, in a one-for-one stock swap valued at approximately $4.8 billion (originally announced at ~$5.3 billion on May 17, 1999). Gulfstream became a wholly owned General Dynamics subsidiary and retained its name and Savannah, GA operations, forming the basis of General Dynamics' business-aviation segment. Confirmed via Aviation Week contemporaneous coverage and SEC filings (General Dynamics/Gulfstream Aerospace Corp Form 8-K, 424B1).
General Dynamics acquired National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO, San Diego) in 1998 for $415 million, adding Navy auxiliary/support ship and Jones-Act commercial shipbuilding to its portfolio.
General Dynamics acquired the privately-held Bath Iron Works shipyard (Bath, Maine) for $300 million in 1995, diversifying into Navy surface combatants (Arleigh Burke and Zumwalt-class destroyers) alongside its Electric Boat submarine business.
Scope: General Dynamics Space Systems Division
Lockheed Martin's 1995 annual report states that Martin Marietta completed the acquisition of General Dynamics' Space Systems Division on 1 May 1994.
Scope: Fort Worth Division / Tactical Military Aircraft business (F-16 Fighting Falcon program)
Business unit sale, not a whole-company transaction; General Dynamics continued as an independent company.
Lockheed Corporation completed its $1.5 billion acquisition of General Dynamics' Fort Worth Division (Tactical Military Aircraft business, maker of the F-16 Fighting Falcon) on March 1, 1993. The unit became Lockheed Fort Worth Company within Lockheed's Aeronautical Systems Group. This predates the 1995 Lockheed/Martin Marietta merger. Confirmed via UPI wire report and Washington Post contemporaneous coverage.
General Dynamics, which had acquired Cessna Aircraft Company in 1985, sold Cessna to Textron Inc. in early 1992 for $605 million, as part of General Dynamics' broader early-1990s divestiture of non-core businesses.
General Atomic was founded July 18, 1955 in San Diego by Frederic de Hoffmann (with Edward Teller and Freeman Dyson) as a division of General Dynamics for nuclear-technology research. Gulf Oil acquired the division in 1967 (operating as Gulf General Atomic, then Gulf Energy & Environmental Systems); Royal Dutch Shell became a $200M partner in 1973, and the company was renamed General Atomics Company in Jan 1974.
General Dynamics began purchasing Convair in 1953, with the formal merger into General Dynamics Corporation completed April 29, 1954; Convair became General Dynamics' Convair Division, later building the Atlas rocket family used in Project Mercury.
Electric Boat Company (founded 1899 when Isaac Rice acquired the Holland Torpedo Boat Company; a major WWII U.S. Navy submarine builder) was reorganized in 1952 under president John Jay Hopkins into the General Dynamics Corporation holding structure, with Electric Boat and the recently acquired Canadair as founding subsidiaries. Modeled as a same-lineage identity change on the existing General Dynamics org row; Electric Boat continues today as GD's submarine-building division.
Electric Boat Company acquired the Canadian government-owned Canadair Limited in 1946 under president John Jay Hopkins; Canadair became a founding subsidiary when Electric Boat reorganized as the General Dynamics holding company in 1952.