General Dynamics

Striving to rebuild itself to its former glory, defense stalwart General Dynamics Corp. has agreed to pay $1.05 billion in cash for three information technology units of GTE Corp., the companies said yesterday.The McLean, Va.-based General Dynamics is in the midst of a shopping spree that includes a $5 billion deal announced in May to acquire business jet maker Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., as well as failed attempts to buy Newport News Shipbuilding Inc. and, in 1997, United Defense LP.The latest deal is expected to add $1.2 billion a year in revenue to General Dynamics' bottom line, bringing its annual earnings to $9 billion and effectively reversing the dismantling that the company undertook earlier this decade when it faced a shrinking defense marketplace.

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. appeals court overturned a $1.2 billion damage award to Boeing Co. and General Dynamics Corp. yesterday and ordered a new set of hearings into the Navy's cancellation of a contract for the A-12 stealth attack aircraft.A three-judge panel in Washington unanimously ruled that a trial judge should not have awarded the damages -- the most ever against the U.S. government -- without first deciding whether company delays and cost overruns justified the Pentagon's decision to scrap the program.

The Air Force may be approaching the end of its appetite for new F-16 fighter planes, but Bethesda's Lockheed Martin Corp. continues to develop markets worldwide for the versatile jet.The company's latest target is Greece, which is shopping for about 60 military aircraft of that type.Lockheed Martin treated Greek Defense Minister Apostolos Tsochatzopoulos to a Fourth of July tour of the Texas plant where F-16s are made and made a pitch for selling his country the latest version of the plane, which has extra-powerful computers.

Even as one potential buyer has walked away from BethShip Inc., three others are checking out the Sparrows Point shipyard.Former U.S. Rep. Helen Delich Bentley, a maritime specialist and a consultant to the port of Baltimore, said Bath Iron Works, a Maine shipbuilder owned by Falls Church, Va.-based General Dynamics, had looked into a purchase."

Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda continued its weight-loss program yesterday, shedding a pair of out-of-state business units that employ about 3,250 people in a $450 million sale to General Dynamics of Falls Church, Va.The Defense Systems unit in Pittsfield, Mass., and the Armament Systems unit in Vermont and Tennessee both make parts for tanks and armored vehicles. Lockheed Martin is on a quest to focus on electronics and military aircraft, and is carving off units that don't fit the mission.

Martin completes acquisitionMartin Marietta Corp. said yesterday that it had completed its $208.5 million acquisition of General Dynamics Corp.'s space systems division.The cash purchase, announced in December, fits MartinMarietta's strategy for the post-Cold War defense industry, said the maker of space launch vehicles, missiles and related products. The former General Dynamics business designs, manufactures and supports Atlas and Centaur space launch vehicles.Martin Marietta said it will cut costs by consolidating its astronautics division, including the Titan IV program, with the Atlas and Centaur programs.

When Martin Marietta Corp. announced in December that it was buying the space systems division of General Dynamics Corp. -- primarily its Atlas rocket program -- for $208.5 million, it didn't set off a lot of fireworks on Wall Street.The Atlas, the nation's first intercontinental ballistic missile and the craft that powered astronaut John Glenn into orbit, had fallen on hard times.The Atlas experienced three failures in its last dozen launch attempts, and General Dynamics suspended the flights.

A federal court has ruled that General Dynamics Corp. did not violate a law requiring most employers to notify workers in advance of a mass layoff when it furloughed 3,000 workers in 1991 after the Navy canceled a $57 billion warplane program.The ruling appears to reduce the protection for workers and expand a loophole that employers, particularly military contractors, may use to avoid issuing warning notices, legal and industry experts said yesterday.Judge Jean C. Hamilton of the U.S. District Court in St. Louis ruled Monday that General Dynamics was not liable for an estimated $12 million in back-pay claims by 1,200 for mer employees who had filed suit.

WASHINGTON -- Martin Marietta Corp. announced yesterday that it will acquire the Space Systems division of General Dynamics Corp. for $208.5 million.The acquisition -- Martin Marietta's second major purchase in the past 13 months -- would probably make the Bethesda-based aerospace company the world's leader in the highly competitive space launch market, and leave it and McDonnell Douglas Corp. the country's only rocket makers.In November last year, Martin Marietta agreed to purchase General Electric Co.'s aerospace division in a transaction valued at more than $3 billion.

Skidding for the second day in a row, the Dow Jones average gave up 19 points yesterday, closing at 3,365.14. Since the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, in September 1988, the Dow is up about 1,200 points, or 55 percent.LOOKING AHEAD: "Odds still favor our perfect scenario of lower inflation, lower interest rates and increasing demand for stocks. This places a major top far away." (Crosscurrents) . . . . . . "Just because the market fluctuates doesn't mean it is getting better or safer."

Towson-based ViPS Inc., a health software company that was acquired by General Dynamics Information Technology Inc. last month, is keeping its headquarters in Towson and hopes to expand there during coming years as part of the redevelopment of that area, Baltimore County economic development officials said yesterday. The company, which employs 600 people, more than 500 of them in Towson, signed a seven-year lease extension for its offices at 1 W. Pennsylvania Ave. The owner of the office tower, Towson Commons LLC, will receive business retention loans totaling $700,000 - $250,000 from the county's Department of Economic Development and $450,000 from the state's Department of Business and Economic Development.

Towson-based ViPS, a health software company and unit of HLTH Corp., will be sold to General Dynamics Information Technology Inc. for $225 million in cash, HLTH Corp. said yesterday. ViPS, which employs 600 people, will remain at its headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue in Towson and is not expected to face job layoffs, said Mark Meudt, a spokesman for the buyer, which is a subsidiary of Falls Church, Va.-based defense company General Dynamics Corp. "At this point we don't anticipate any significant changes," Meudt said yesterday.

Defense contractor General Dynamics is expanding in defense-contractor-magnet Anne Arundel County, announcing yesterday that it will open a new location as soon as December and add 100 jobs. The company has signed a lease for 62,000 square feet in a building under construction in Arundel Mills Corporate Park, a complex across from the Arundel Mills mall. General Dynamics' Advanced Information Systems division will use the office space for systems engineering, software development and systems integration.

Northrop Grumman Corp., the world's largest builder of warships, has had "significant cost growth" and schedule delays in building its share of the Navy's newest nuclear submarines, the service's top acquisition official said yesterday. There has been "rapid deterioration" in the company's performance since January, Assistant Secretary for Acquisition John J. Young wrote Northrop Chairman Ronald Sugar in an Aug. 6 letter obtained by Bloomberg News. The cost to build the first four submarines has risen by $419.

On a recent frigid morning as everyone else huddled inside, Wilbur was making the rounds in the fields surrounding General Dynamics' Carroll County plant, looking for signs of intruders. Cold is no worry to Wilbur, even after hours outdoors. He never gets bored, either, or tired. Not Wilbur, an autonomous vehicle, part of the latest generation of robotics that outpaces even the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Mars rover. What sets Wilbur apart is what's inside that compact-car-sized body, the equivalent of half a dozen powerful PCs that allow it to think a lot like we do. Assign the dullest, dirtiest and most dangerous assignments, and Wilbur sets off without a qualm -- or a remote operator.

Harford County lost out to Possum Point, Va., in the competition for one of the biggest economic development plums to come along in nearly a decade - a $100 million-plus plant to build a new amphibious assault vehicle for the Marines. The tiny Northern Virginia community was selected by General Dynamics Corp. on Tuesday as the site for a 450,000-square-foot factory - larger than the General Motors Corp. Allison Transmission plant in White Marsh - that is expected to employ 350 manufacturing workers.

As the American military turns increasingly toward things like satellite guidance and flying robots to do its deadly business, 50 designers and engineers in Maryland have been given two years and $100 million to upgrade and computerize the Army's last stubborn holdout of low technology - its foot soldiers. General Dynamics Robotics Systems Inc., based in Westminster, will design and develop an integrated system of clothing, body armor, weapons and electronics with the hope of wiring humans into the new computerized battlefield.

State and Harford County officials will meet Tuesday with representatives of General Dynamics Corp. in Falls Church, Va., to fine-tune their bid to land a $45 million factory that will build a new military vehicle for the Marines, creating 350 jobs. The county and Aberdeen Proving Ground are one of 10 U.S. competitors for production of the advanced amphibious assault vehicle, called AAAV by military officials. The factory is to build more than 1,000 of the landing craft over the next 20 years.

State and Harford County officials will meet Tuesday with representatives of General Dynamics Corp. in Falls Church, Va., to fine-tune their bid to land a $45 million factory that will build a new military vehicle for the Marines, creating 350 jobs. The county and Aberdeen Proving Ground are one of 10 U.S. competitors for production of the advanced amphibious assault vehicle, called AAAV by military officials. The factory is to build more than 1,000 of the landing craft over the next 20 years.

WASHINGTON - General Dynamics Corp. sought yesterday to overturn the Navy's award to Northrop Grumman Corp. of a $2.9 billion three-year contract to design a new class of destroyers that is less visible to radar. General Dynamics' attorneys filed a protest with the U.S. General Accounting Office, alleging problems with the Navy's process for determining a winner in the design contest. Raytheon Co. is the prime subcontractor on Northrop Grumman's team. Lockheed Martin Corp. teamed with General Dynamics.