General Dynamics wins $42 million U.K. helicopter work

General Dynamics Corp., Falls Church, Va., has won a $42 million contract to install two-way data communications capabilities on British helicopters, the company announced today.

The U.K. Ministry of Defence awarded the contract to General Dynamics United Kingdom Ltd., a subsidiary of General Dynamics. The ground-to-air data connectivity equipment will be installed on British Army Apache WAH Mk 1 helicopters.

The contract, called Apache Bowman Connectivity, will provide a two-way data connection between the helicopters and military ground networks to feed situational awareness data from the helicopter to command and control operations.

The mission systems unit of General Dynamics United Kingdom will perform the work. The unit specializes in avionics equipment for European military aircraft as well as information management systems for safety and mission critical mission systems. It employs approximately 900 people.