General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation is an American aerospace and defense company formed by merger s and divestiture s . It is the world ' s fifth - largest defense contractor based 2012 revenue . General Dynamics 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 and Technology ; and Aerospace . Until 1993 , when production was sold to Lockheed , General Dynamics ' former Fort Worth Division manufactured the Western world ' s most - produced jet fighter , the F - 16 Fighting Falcon . In 1999 , the company re - entered the airframe business with its purchase of Gulfstream Aerospace . History . Electric Boat . General Dynamics traces its ancestry to John Philip Holland ' s Holland Torpedo Boat Company . This company was responsible for developing the U . S . Navy ' s first submarine s built at Lewis Nixon ' s Crescent Shipyard , located in Elizabethport , New Jersey . The revolutionary submarine boat " Holland VI " was built there , its keel being laid down in 1896 . Crescent ' s superintendent and naval architect , Arthur Leopold Busch , supervised the construction of this submarine . After being launched on 17 May 1897 , it was eventually purchased by the Navy and renamed USS Holland . The " Holland " was officially commissioned on 12 October 1900 and became the United States Navy ' s first submarine , later known as SS - 1 . The Navy placed an order for more submarines , which were developed in rapid succession and were assembled at two different locations on both coasts . These submarines were known as the A - Class or " Adder " Class , and became America ' s first fleet of underwater craft at the beginning of the 20th century . Due to the lengthy and expensive process of introducing the world ' s first practical submarines , Holland , short on funds , had to part with his company and sell his interest to financier Isaac Leopold Rice , renaming the new firm as the Electric Boat Company on 7 February 1899 . Holland effectively lost control of the company and found himself earning a salary of $ 90 a week as chief engineer , while the company he founded was selling submarines for $ 300 , 000 each . Holland resigned from the company effective April 1904 . Rice became Electric Boat ' s first President , remaining there from that time until 1915 when he stepped down just prior to his death on 2 November 1915 . Electric Boat gained a reputation for unscrupulous arms dealing in 1904 - 05 , when it sold submarines to Japan ' s Imperial Japanese Navy and Russia ' s Imperial Russian Navy , who were then at war . Holland submarines were also sold to the British Royal Navy through the English armaments company Vickers , and to the Dutch to serve in the Royal Netherlands Navy . The new pioneering craft ( originally ) developed by the company was now legitimized as genuine naval weapons by the world ' s most powerful navies . In the post - World War II wind - down , Electric Boat was cash - flush but lacking in work , with its workforce shrinking from 13 , 000 to 4 , 000 by 1946 . Hoping to diversify , the president and chief executive officer , John Jay Hopkins , started looking for companies that would fit into Electric Boat ' s market . Canadair purchase . Hopkins quickly found that Canadair , owned by the Canadian government , was suffering from similar post - war malaise and was up for sale . Hopkins bought the company for $ 10 million in 1946 . Even by the Canadian government ' s calculations , the factory alone was worth more than $ 22 million , excluding the value of the remaining contracts for planes or spare parts . When Electric Boat purchased Canadair , its production line and inventory systems were in disorder . Hopkins hired Canadian - born mass - production specialist H . Oliver West to take over the president ' s role and return Canadair to profitability . Shortly after the takeover , Canadair began delivering its new Canadair North Star ( a version of the Douglas DC - 4 ) , and was able to deliver aircraft to Trans - Canada Airlines , Canadian Pacific Airlines and British Overseas Airways Corporation ( BOAC ) well in advance of their contracted delivery times . As defense spending increased with the onset of the Cold War , Canadair would go on to win many Canadian military contracts for the Royal Canadian Air Force , and became a major aerospace company . These included Canadair T - 33 trainer , the Canadair Argus long - range maritime reconnaissance and transport aircraft , and the Canadair F - 86 " Sabre " . Between 1950 and 1958 , 1 , 815 Sabres were built . Canadair also produced 200 CF - 104 Starfighter supersonic fighter aircraft , a licensed - built version of the Lockheed F - 104 . In 1976 Canadair was sold back to the Canadian Government , which sold it to Bombardier Inc . in 1986 . General Dynamics emerges . As the aircraft production at Canadair became increasingly important to the company , Hopkins argued that the name " Electric Boat " was no longer appropriate . On 24 April 1952 , Electric Boat was reorganized as General Dynamics . General Dynamics was still flush with cash after the Canadair purchase , and , given the success of that company , it continued to look for new aviation purchases . In March 1953 it purchased Convair from the Atlas Group . The sale was approved by government oversight with the proviso that General Dynamics would continue to operate out of Air Force Plant 4 in Fort Worth , Texas . This factory was set up in order to spread out strategic aircraft production and rented to Convair during the war to produce B - 24 Liberator bombers . Over time , the Fort Worth plant would become Convair ' s major production center . As was the case with Canadair , Convair worked as an independent division within the General Dynamics umbrella . Over the next decade the company introduced the F - 106 Delta Dart Interceptor ( the earlier F - 102 Delta Dagger being designed before the takeover ) , the B - 58 Hustler and the Convair 880 and 990 airliners . Convair also introduced the first U . S . operational intercontinental ballistic missile , the Atlas . Management churn . Hopkins fell seriously ill during 1957 , and was eventually replaced by Frank Pace later that year . Meanwhile , John Naish succeeded Joseph McNarney as president of Convair . Henry Crown became the company ' s largest shareholder , and merged his Material Service Corporation with GD in 1959 . Naish left in May 1961 , taking most of Convair ' s top people with him . GD subsequently reorganized into Eastern Group in New York and Western Group in San Diego , California , with the latter taking over all of the aerospace activities and dropping the Convair brand name from its aircraft in the process . Frank Pace retired under pressure in 1962 and Roger Lewis , former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force and Pan American Airways CEO was brought in as the new CEO . The company recovered then fell back into the same struggles . In 1971 , the board brought in Dave Lewis ( no relation ) as Chairman and CEO . At the time he was President of McDonnell Douglas . Dave Lewis served until his retirement in 1985 . Aviation powerhouse . During the early 1960s the company bid on the United States Air Force ' s TFX ( Tactical Fighter , eXperimental ) project for a new low - level " penetrator " . Robert McNamara , newly installed as the Secretary of Defense , forced a merger of the TFX with U . S . Navy plans for a new long - range " fleet defender " aircraft . In order to bid on a naval version successfully , GD partnered with Grumman , who would build a customized version for aircraft carrier duties . After four rounds of bids and changes , the GD / Grumman team finally won the contract over a Boeing submission . The F - 111 first flew in December 1964 . The F - 111B flew in May 1965 , but the Navy said that it was too heavy for use on aircraft carriers . With an unacceptable Navy version , estimates for 2 , 400 F - 111s , including exports , were sharply reduced , but GD still managed to make a $ 300 - million profit on the project . Grumman went on to build the F - 14 Tomcat , an aircraft that used many of the innovations of the F - 111 , but designed solely as a carrier - borne fighter . Reorganization . In May 1965 , GD reorganized into 12 operating divisions based on product lines . The board decided to build all future planes in Fort Worth , ending plane production at San Diego ( Convair ' s original plant ) , but continuing with space and missile development there . In October 1970 , Roger Lewis left and David S . Lewis from McDonnell Douglas was named CEO . Lewis required that the company headquarters move to St . Louis , Missouri , which occurred in February 1971 . F - 16 success . In 1972 , GD bid on the USAF ' s Lightweight Fighter ( LWF ) project . GD and Northrop were awarded prototype contracts . GD , whose F - 111 program was winding down , desperately needed a new aircraft contract . It organized its own " Skunk Works " group , the Advanced Concepts Laboratory , and responded with a new aircraft design that incorporated more modern equipment than the Northrop contender , mainly fly - by - wire flight controls . GD ' s YF - 16 first flew in January 1974 , and proved to have slightly better performance than the YF - 17 in head - to - head testing . It entered production as the F - 16 in January 1975 with an initial order of 650 and a total order of 1 , 388 . The F - 16 also won contracts worldwide , beating the F - 17 in foreign competition as well . F - 16 orders eventually totaled more than 4 , 000 , making it the largest and most successful program for GD , and one of the most successful western military projects since World War II . Land Systems focus . In 1976 , General Dynamics sold the struggling Canadair back to the Canadian government for $ 38 million . By 1984 , General Dynamics had four divisions : Convair in San Diego , General Dynamics - Fort Worth , General Dynamics - Pomona , and General Dynamics - Electronics . In 1985 a further reorganization created the Space Systems Division from the Convair Space division . In 1985 , GD also acquired Cessna . In 1986 the Pomona division ( which mainly produced the Standard Missile and the Phalanx CIWS for the Navy ) was split up , creating the Valley Systems Division . Valley Systems produced the Stinger surface - to - air missile and the Rolling Airframe Missile ( RAM ) . Both units were recombined into one entity in 1992 . Henry Crown , still GD ' s largest shareholder , died on 15 August 1990 . Following this , the company started to rapidly divest its under - performing divisions under CEO William Anders . Cessna was re - sold to Textron in January 1992 , the San Diego and Pomona missile production units to General Motors - Hughes Aerospace in May 1992 , the Fort Worth aircraft production to Lockheed in March 1993 ( a nearby electronics production facility was separately sold to Israeli - based Elbit Systems , marking its entry into the United States market ) , and its Space Systems Division to Martin Marietta in 1994 . The remaining Convair Aircraft Structure unit was sold to McDonnell Douglas in 1994 . The remains of the Convair Division were simply closed in 1996 . GD ' s exit from the aviation world was short - lived , and in 1999 the company acquired Gulfstream Aerospace . The Pomona operation was closed shortly after its sale to Hughes Aircraft . Having divested itself of its aviation holdings , GD concentrated on land and sea products . GD purchased Chrysler ' s defense divisions in 1982 , renaming them General Dynamics Land Systems . In 2003 it purchased the defense divisions of General Motors as well . It is now a major supplier of armored vehicles of all types , including the M1 Abrams , LAV 25 , Stryker , and a wide variety of vehicles based on these chassis . General Dynamics Land Systems was hurt by the cancellation of the US Army ' s Future Combat Systems program and the loss in the MRAP - All Terrain Vehicle competition . Government lawsuit and settlement . On August 19 , 2008 , GD agreed to pay $ 4 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the US Government claiming a GD unit fraudulently billed the government for defectively manufactured parts used in US military aircraft and submarines . The US alleged that from September 2001 to August 2003 GD defectively manufactured or failed to test parts used in US military aircraft , such as the C - 141 Starlifter transport plane . The GD unit involved , based in Glen Cove , New York , closed in 2004 . Timeline . Electric Boat was established in 1899 . Company outline . Information systems and technology . Information systems and technology represent 34 % of the company ' s revenue . Corporate governance . Current members of the board of directors of General Dynamics are : Nicholas Chabraja , Jay L . Johnson , James Crown , William P . Fricks , Charles H . Goodman , George Joulwan , John M . Keane , Paul G . Kaminski , Deborah J . Lucas , Lester Lyles , Carl E . Mundy , Jr . , J . Christopher Reyes , and Robert Walmsley . Financials . General Dynamics has about $ 30 billion in sales , primarily military , but also civilian with its Gulfstream Aerospace unit and conventional shipbuilding 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 armored vehicles . In March the board of Alvis Vickers voted in favor 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 finalized 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 .