General Dynamics Wins FAA Contract – Analyst Blog

General Dynamics (GD) won a ten-year $1.2 billion contact from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), aimed at modernizing the US air traffic control system. The company, one of the three selected contractors, will support FAA’s System Engineering 2020 Research and Development/Mission Analysis Support program.

 

General Dynamic’s prime areas of focus will be to improve operational activities, while working in conjunction with its team, including among others, the Gulfstream Aerospace and Jet Aviation, leading aircraft manufacturing and business-aviation service support organizations. The company will work to enhance airspace system security, air-traffic management, automation, airplane design and analysis, avionic systems operations and maintenance, cost-benefit analysis and terminal environment.

 

General Dynamics via this program will support FAA’s Air Traffic Control and Next Generation (NextGen) modernization program, which aims at improvising the country’s airspace safety, capacity and efficiency through modernizing aircraft, air traffic control facilities and airport technologies.

 

The General Dynamics team will include General Dynamics Information Technology, General Dynamics C4 Systems, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, and Jet Aviation. Additionally, the company will have a team 24 other companies.

 

Ending its first quarter 2010, the company’s total order backlog was $63.9 billion, and the estimated potential contract value was an additional $17.0 billion.

 

General Dynamics Corporation engages in mission-critical information systems and technologies; land and expeditionary combat vehicles, armaments and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and business aviation. The company is also the fourth largest U.S. defense contractor in terms of revenue in fiscal 2009. Prime competitors of the company include Boeing Co. (BA), Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT), and Textron Inc. (TXT).

 

We currently have a market Neutral recommendation on the Zacks Rank #3 stock, General Dynamics.