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Saco Defense

General Dynamics Corporation
Public
Traded as
Industry Aerospace
Defense
Founded February 7, 1899; 118 years ago (1899-02-07)
Founder John Philip Holland
Headquarters West Falls Church, Virginia, United States
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Phebe Novakovic
(CEO and Chairman)
Products Conglomerate
Revenue IncreaseUS$31.4 billion (2015)
IncreaseUS$4.1 billion (2015)
IncreaseUS$2.9 billion (2015)
Total assets DecreaseUS$31.9 billion (2015)
Total equity DecreaseUS$10.7 billion (2015)
Number of employees
99,900 (2015)
Website www.gd.com

General Dynamics Corporation 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. 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 Technology, and Aerospace. General Dynamics' former Fort Worth Division manufactured one of the Western world's most-produced jet fighters, the F-16 Fighting Falcon—until 1993, when production was sold to Lockheed. In 1999, the company re-entered the airframe business with its purchase of Gulfstream Aerospace.

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 submarines 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 (SS-1). 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.


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