GD eyes first-responder market

General Dynamics Corp., a longtime player in the federal technology market, is preparing to enter a new government space: the state and local first-responders market.

The company's move stems from its acquisition last year of Command Systems Inc. of Fort Wayne, Ind., said Rob Doolittle, company spokesman. Command Systems' specialty was off-the-shelf command and control suites, which General Dynamics saw could fit the civilian emergency services and homeland security markets, he said.

Using technology developed for the military more than a decade ago, General Dynamics has created a new solution that allows first-responder radios, tactical radios, wireline and wireless telecommunications systems to talk to each other.