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General Dynamics Selected for $450 Million UK Defense Digitization Program

New award expands on foundation created by BOWMAN communications system program

FALLS CHURCH, Va. – General Dynamics United Kingdom Ltd., a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), has been selected as the preferred supplier by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) to demonstrate, supply and support a digital battle management system for deployment throughout the UK’s ground-based defense forces. General Dynamics UK and the UK MoD will now enter negotiations on the scope, timing and value of the program, which could exceed $450 million (£300 million).

Through this program, called the Digitization Battlespace Land-ComBAT, Infrastructure and Platform battlefield information systems application (DBL-CIP), General Dynamics will integrate hardware and software into a common digital communications and situational-awareness system for deployment with all UK ground forces, from individual combat vehicles up to the division level. The system will give fighting forces constant access to command and control information, even while they are on the move. The first fighting unit will be converted to the new system by mid-2003.

Nicholas D. Chabraja, General Dynamics chairman and CEO, said, “We are pleased that the UK Ministry of Defense has once again selected General Dynamics as a key partner in its efforts to capture the advantages of network-enabled capabilities for the UK’s defense forces.”

Initial fielding of the BOWMAN-CIP integrated ground communications and information infrastructure to a full brigade will be in 2005, and full operational capability will be reached in 2007.

General Dynamics UK was awarded a $2.4 billion (1.7 billion) contract for the BOWMAN secure, digital voice and data communications system in September 2001. BOWMAN will include a situational awareness system, and will provide the infrastructure to support a range of digitization applications, such as DBL-CIP, over the next 30 years. Approximately, 20,000 UK army vehicles will be equipped and 70,000 Service personnel trained on BOWMAN by October 2007. BOWMAN replaces a system that is more than 25 years old; it will be the largest defense communications program in the UK in over 50 years.

General Dynamics United Kingdom, based in Oakdale, South Wales, UK, 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 1,000 highly skilled staff at eight locations.

General Dynamics, headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, employs approximately 54,000 people worldwide and anticipates 2002 revenue of $14 billion. The company has leading market positions in mission-critical information systems and technologies, land and amphibious combat systems, 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 - Thursday, November 7, 2002
Press Contact: (703) 876-3190