as nyse gd s & p 500 component industry aerospace defense founded february 7 1899 ; 117 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 30.852 billion 2014 backlog 51.281 billion 1 operating income 3.889 billion 2014 net income 2.533 billion 2014 total assets 35.355 billion 2014 2 35.448 billion 2013 2 total equity 13.232 billion 2012 number of employees 99 500 2014 3 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 . 4 general dynamics is headquartered in west falls church fairfax county virginia . 5 6 7 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 . contents 1 history 1.1 electric boat 1.2 canadair purchase 1.3 general dynamics emerges 1.4 management churn 1.5 aviation powerhouse 1.6 reorganization 1.7 f 16 success 1.8 land systems focus 1.9 government lawsuit and settlement 2 timeline 2.1 20th century acquisitions 2.2 21st century acquisitions 2.2.1 divestitures 3 company outline 3.1 aircraft systems 3.2 marine systems 3.3 missile systems 3.4 combat systems 3.5 information systems and technology 3.6 launch vehicles 3.7 aerospace 3.8 corporate governance 3.9 financials 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit poster by erik nitsche from 1960 electric boat edit main article general dynamics 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 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 . holland grew short on funds due to the lengthy and expensive process of introducing the world s first practical submarines and he 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 that he founded was selling submarines for 300 000 each . citation needed 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 . 8 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 . citation needed hoping to diversify president and chief executive officer john jay hopkins started looking for companies that would fit into electric boat s market . canadair purchase edit 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 citation needed 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 . citation needed as defense spending increased with the onset of the cold war canadair went 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 license 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 edit 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 . 9 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 . citation needed in march 1953 it purchased convair from the atlas group . 9 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 became convair s major production center . citation needed as was the case with canadair convair worked as an independent division under the general dynamics umbrella . over the next decade the company introduced the f 106 delta dart interceptor the b 58 hustler and the convair 880 and 990 airliners . convair also introduced the atlas missile platform the first u.s. operational intercontinental ballistic missile . management churn edit hopkins fell seriously ill during 1957 and was eventually replaced by frank pace later that year . 9 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 . citation needed gd subsequently reorganized into eastern group in new york city 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 . citation needed 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 ceo . the company recovered then fell back into the same struggles . in 1971 the board brought in mcdonnell douglas president dave lewis no relation as chairman and ceo who served until retiring in 1985 . aviation powerhouse edit 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 . citation needed 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 . citation needed grumman went on to use many of the innovations of the f 111 in the highly successful f 14 tomcat an aircraft designed solely as a carrier borne fighter . reorganization edit 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 convair s original plant in san diego 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 . citation needed f 16 success edit in 1972 gd bid on the usaf s lightweight fighter lwf project . gd and northrop were awarded prototype contracts . gd s f 111 program was winding down and the company desperately needed a new aircraft contract . it organized its own version of lockheed s famed skunk works the advanced concepts laboratory and responded with a new aircraft design incorporating modern equipment . 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 . gd built an aircraft production factory in fort worth texas . f 16 orders eventually totaled more than 4 000 making it the largest and most successful program for the company and one of the most successful western military projects since world war ii . in 1999 the company acquired gulfstream aerospace . here a gulfstream g650 departs bristol airport england in 2014 . land systems focus edit 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