General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited Achieves BOWMAN Milestone 24 on Schedule: Initial Integration Complete
FARNBOROUGH, England – General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics (NYSE:GD), announced today that the Ministry of Defence has approved BOWMAN Milestone 24, Initial Integration Complete, a Tier 1 milestone. Approval of this milestone acknowledges that the Company has achieved the necessary level of maturity in the various BOWMAN sub-systems to enable Initial Operation Capability systems integration in October 2002.
Ken Beselt, vice president of the BOWMAN program for General Dynamics UK, said, “Milestone 24 was the BOWMAN program strategic objective set for the second quarter of 2002. At the beginning of the year we put together a detailed plan for accomplishing this major goal and I am delighted that the testing was completed and the report submitted to the MoD on schedule.”
Pete Worrall, the Defence Procurement Agency’s BOWMAN & Land Digitization IPT leader, said, “GD UK’s BOWMAN team has worked very hard to achieve this milestone; my team and I have been very impressed by their competence, enthusiasm and general will to succeed”.
Larry Johnson, Managing Director of General Dynamics UK, said, “This significant achievement is a result of excellent and dedicated hard work by our BOWMAN team, working very closely with the MoD BOWMAN IPT. Today, we have just 356 days left until the start of the conversion of the first Battalion on 13 July 2003 – we are 46 percent of the way through and we are on schedule.”
General Dynamics United Kingdom specializes 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
BOWMAN, a secure digital voice and data communication system for the UK armed forces, will be based on Internet protocol. It will include land-based command and control systems, and will provide the infrastructure to support all digitization applications over the next 30 years. An initial operational capability will be available within 24 months; some 20,000 military vehicles will be equipped and 100,000 personnel will be trained on BOWMAN by October 2007.
In parallel with BOWMAN, the Company is taking a leading role in the growing UK market for digitization programs.
General Dynamics UK is one of only two SEI Level 3-certified software integrators currently operating in the UK, and the regularly provides this capability to other platform prime contractors such as BAE Systems and the MoD for a range of Safety-Critical Mission systems.
The Company's Mission Systems Business Unit is one of the leading European suppliers of integrated avionics and mission systems. It is the second largest supplier of UK avionics equipment for Eurofighter.
The Manufacturing unit comprises two state-of-the-art plants, one of which has been optimized for low-volume, high-mix, high-quality production runs, the other aligned to high-volume manufacturing; both fully satisfy defense industry standards.
General Dynamics, headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, USA, employs approximately 54,000 people worldwide and had 2001 revenues of US$14 billion. 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.
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Any "forward-looking statements" contained in this press release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
General Dynamics Corporation (ticker: GD, exchange: NYSE)
News Release - Friday, July 26, 2002
Press Contact: 020 7932 3400
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