7 Nov 02. A major milestone in the UK’s £1.9bn BOWMAN communications programme was achieved on November 7th when UK Defence Minister, the Rt. Hon. Geoff Hoon M.P. officially opened the new General Dynamics (United Kingdom) (GDUK), facility in Oakdale, South Wales. GDUK, now headquartered in Oakdale, specialises in military communications, battlespace, mission and information management systems for safety and mission-critical applications. It has been active in the UK since 1962 and now employs over 600 highly skilled staff at eight locations. The company is one of only two SEI Level 3 software integrators currently operating in the UK, and the company regularly provides this capability to other platform prime contractors such as BAE Systems and the MoD for a range of safety critical mission systems. GDUK is part of General Dynamics, headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, USA, which employs approximately 54,000 people worldwide and anticipates 2002 revenues of approximately $14bn. The company has leading market positions in land and amphibious combat systems, mission-critical information systems and technologies, shipbuilding and marine systems, and business aviation (See feature in BATTLESPACE TECHNOLOGIES C4ISTAR October issue).

During the opening ceremony, Hoon confirmed that GD had been selected as preferred supplier for two further contracts, one the Combat Infrastructure (CIP) requirement, and as preferred bidder for the key data exploitation Defence Technology Centre.