GD Lands $2.4B British Defense Deal

A unit of General Dynamics Corp. won a $2.4 billion contract to build the Bowman communications systems for the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence, the company announced July 19.

CDC Systems UK Ltd. was formed by General Dynamics of Falls Church, Va., to pursue the contract.

Bowman will be an Internet protocol-based, secure digital voice and data communication system for the British armed forces. It will include a land-based command and control system, and provide the infrastructure to support all digitalization applications over the next 30 years.

Initial operational capability for the new system will be within 24 months, with all 18,000 army vehicles equipped and all 60,000 service personnel trained on Bowman by October 2007.

Bowman replaces a 25-year-old system and represents the largest defense communications program in the United Kingdom in more than 50 years, General Dynamics officials said.

When completed, Bowman will include the deployment of approximately 50,000 radios, 25,000 terminals and more than 8,000 local area systems.

CDC Systems will be based in South East Wales, creating or sustaining some 1,600 jobs countrywide.

General Dynamics also will fund a new Army communications research and development center in the United Kingdom. The research program will be directed by the Army toward its future needs and will collaborate with local universities.

Members General Dynamics team include ITT Defence Systems; Harris Systems Ltd.; BAE Systems; Command Systems Inc.; Litton Industries; Alvis Vehicles; Roush Technologies; Westland; EADS; Syntegra; HVR; and Computer Sciences Corp.

"We will draw on the engineering talents and experience our Computing Devices Canada business unit gained with Iris, a communications system that is performing successfully for the Canadian Army," said Nicholas Chabraja, chairman and chief executive officer of General Dynamics.

Chabraja said approximately 95 percent of the program will be carried out in the United Kingdom , adding, "We hope this is the beginning of a long relationship with the U.K. [Defence Ministry] and the British Army."