CEO: Nicholas D. Chabraja
Military contracts 2005: $10.6 billion
Total contributions in the 2004 election cycle: $1,437,602*

The Falls Church, Virginia-based company is second only to Northrop Grumman as the US Navy’s largest shipbuilder and is the United States’ leading producer of combat vessels, including nuclear submarines, surface combatants, and auxiliary ships. General Dynamics also makes land and amphibious combat systems and information technology systems for military use. Subsidiaries of General Dynamic produce some of its best-known military products: the innocuously-named Bath Iron Works builds the DDG 52 destroyer; Land Systems makes GD’s famous M1 tank; and Electric Boat makes the Trident and Seawolf attack submarine.

In the past several years, “defense” companies have been swallowing up small technology firms in order to upgrade to the type of high-tech warfare that the Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is pushing in the Pentagon. General Dynamics got on the ball early, setting up an Information Technology sector in the late 1990s, which has now become one of GD’s fastest growing divisions with revenues of $4 billion. Last year, General Dynamics acquired Creative Technology Inc, which makes computer systems for the transmission of classified information in order to do a technical makeover on the company’s tanks and submarines, outfitting them with digital capabilities.

General Dynamics was accused of having paid former South Korean president Roh Tae Woo $100 million in a bid to get the country to purchase 120 F-16 fighter jets in 1991. South Korea ultimately bought 120 fighters for $6 billion, after reversing the government’s earlier decision to buy McDonnell Douglas’ F-18 despite the preference for the latter of many in the South Korean Air Force. The division of General Dynamics that produces F-16 was eventually bought by Lockheed Martin, in one of its many consolidations and both companies were investigated by the US government for foreign bribery.

More recently, General Dynamics received a subpoena in early 2004 on charges of having falsely stated that submarine parts sold to the US Navy were tested properly. The company has also been subpoenaed in an investigation by the Department of Defense’s inspector general over whether it had produced shoddy parts for military use.

The company’s record for labor rights isn’t much better. Workers took General Dynamics to court, arguing that the company was violating the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1969 for not guaranteeing retirement health benefits to workers under fifty. The case is still pending.

The Secretary of the Navy, Gordon England, is a former General Dynamics executive. The Boston Globe noted at the time of his nomination that "Gordon England had no military experience, but he had just the right qualification to become President Bush’s pick for secretary of the Navy: Two decades in the corporate world." Former Pentagon and military officials populate General Dynamic’s Board of Directors, including Jay L. Johnson, Chief of Naval Operations in the U.S. Navy, Paul G. Kaminski, Under Secretary of U.S. Department of Defense for Acquisition and Technology, and George A. Joulwan, former U.S. Army Supreme Allied Commander, Europe.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell had an interest in the company as well. He received $1 million of stock in General Dynamics, as well as more than $20 million in other corporate investments, when he joined the board of America Online.

In the 2004 election cycle, General Dynamics gave $1.42 million in campaign contributions, with 57% going to Republicans.

*Source: opensecrets.org

Links
General Dynamics
United Auto Workers
War Resisters League Merchants of Death Campaign
US: Business booming for U.S. defense contractors
by Peter Bauer, Menafn
August 20th, 2005
U.S. defence contractors are riding high these days, buoyed by rising Pentagon spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the high cost of homeland security in the U.S.-declared war on terror. The fiscal 2006 defence budget is set to climb to 441 billion dollars, an increase of 21 billion dollars over 2005. It envisions an additional 50 billion dollars for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

US: General Dynamics Subpoenaed Over Long Island Plant
by Anitha Reddy, Washington Post
March 6th, 2004
The U.S. attorney's office in the Eastern District of New York has subpoenaed General Dynamics Corp. about a New York factory it believes may have falsely certified that parts for U.S. Navy submarines were properly tested.

US: The Booming Defense Business
by William D. Hartung, Los Angeles Times
December 10th, 2003
It's not every day that the chief executive of a major defense contractor steps down because of ethical wrongdoing on his watch, as Boeing CEO Phil Condit did Dec. 1. But let's be clear about one thing: This mounting scandal, which centers on whether Boeing improperly offered Pentagon procurement official Darleen Druyun a job while she was negotiating the terms of a $20-billion deal to lease 747s from the company, goes well beyond a few misguided executives at one corporation.

US: Defense Firms Consolidate As War Goes High-Tech
by Renae Merle, The Washington Post
May 27th, 2003
The nation's leading defense contractors are gobbling up small technology firms in a consolidation binge driven by the Pentagon's demand that future military conflicts be dominated by high-tech warfare.

US: Supreme Court to Rule on General Dynamics Age Discrimination Case
by Charles Lane, Washington Post
April 22nd, 2003
The Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will review a Colorado case that could help further define the constitutional ban on forced confessions. At issue is whether physical evidence that authorities discovered because of what a suspect told them before being fully informed of his rights should have been admissible in court.

World: Iraq Coverage Helps Arms Exporters
by Renae Merle, Washington Post
April 1st, 2003
When the war in Iraq winds down, the U.S. defense industry is likely to launch a major new offensive to sell its battlefield-tested weapons to countries around the world.

US: A Wartime Bonanza
by Michelle Ciarrocca, AlterNet
September 30th, 2002
President Bush's military budget increase and the war time "unity" on Capitol Hill have created an environment in which weapons makers can enjoy the best of both worlds – continuing to make money on the weapons systems of the cold war while reaping the benefits of a war time bonanza of new defense contracts.

South Korea: General Dynamics Denies Bribery Allegations
by John Mintz, Washington Post
October 26th, 1995
A South Korean legislator alleged yesterday that General Dynamics Corp. paid former president Roh Tae Woo at least $100 million in 1991 in a successful effort to persuade the South Korean military to buy the company's F-16 fighters. The Falls Church-based company strenuously denied the allegation.

World: Bribe Probe For US Arms Firms
by Mark Tran, Guardian (London)
September 2nd, 1995
The US government is investigating two of America's biggest defence contractors, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, for possible bribery in foreign sales - with the world's most widely used fighter, the F-16, the apparent focus of interest.