Written evidence from General Dynamics
United Kingdom Limited (GDUK)
1. OVERVIEW OF
STRUCTURE OF
GDUK
A wiring diagram of the structure of GDUK is
attached at Annex A hereto. The Company is divided into six main
business areas, with attendant support functions, as follows:
(a) BOWMAN/CIP—This business
area manages GDUK's £1.7 billion prime contract with the
Ministry of Defence for BOWMAN, the tactical communications system,
integrating digital voice and data technology to provide secure
radio, telephone, intercom and tactical internet services in a
single, modular and fully integrated system. Additionally, GDUK
is providing the Army's core digitisation capability which includes
the Common Battlefield Application Toolset (ComBAT), the Hardware
Infrastructure, and the Platform Battlefield Information System
Applications (BISAs) together known as CIP, which was added into
the BOWMAN Prime Contract at a value of c. £300 million.
(b) Strategic Pursuits—This
business area is tasked with acquiring further work for GDUK in
its core competence areas of military communications, battlespace
management, and command, control, computers and communications
infrastructure (C4I) capabilities.
(c) Network Solutions—This
business area seeks to bring together successful integration of
major systems from a number of suppliers in order to provide Battlespace
C4I customers with a fully integrated "System of Systems"
solution. By bringing together the strengths of various system
improvements in capabilities and interoperability, GDUK can assist
the Ministry of Defence in realising its goal of a fully Network
Enabled Capability in warfighting.
(d) Mission Systems—GDUK
is a world leader in the integration of both Mission and Weapon
Systems. These include Avionic "black boxes" (GDUK is
the second largest UK supplier of avionics for Eurofighter), Stores
Management Systems, Ground Stations and Airborne Reconnaissance.
(e) Capability Sustainment—This
business area is tasked with providing a complete "birth
to grave" support solution to enable the BOWMAN/CIP system
to be supported in-service with the Armed Forces. There are over
20,000 vehicles, 3 aircraft types and over 40 ships that will
be BOWMAN-enabled and the large number of BOWMAN equipments (radios,
user data terminals, etc) will all require to be maintained, repaired,
overhauled and given spares availability.
(f) Advanced Technologies—This
business area is focused on advanced development and integration
of technologies to ensure a prime competitive position for the
UK's Command Battle Management Land capability requirements. GDUK's
R & D programme comprises a number of technology streams including
Data Fusion (GDUK was awarded the MoD's first Defence Technology
Centre (DTC) contract to cover data and information fusion), Network
Management, Connectivity, Assured Processing, Human Machine Interfaces
and Simulation and Modelling.
2. RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN OPERATIONS
IN WALES
AND THE
PARENT COMPANY
GDUK operates as an autonomous business unit
within the Information Systems and Technology (IS & T) group
of the General Dynamics Corporation (GD). GD is divided into four
groups—IS & T, Combat Systems, Marine Systems and Aerospace.
Within IS & T, there are four business units—GDUK, GD
Advanced Information Systems, GD Network Systems and GDC4 Systems.
3. MARKET POSITION/SHARE
GDUK has a major share of the UK C4I market,
stemming from the MoD's award of the BOWMAN programme and the
follow-on award of the CIP programme. It is impossible to quantify
this market share exactly in percentage terms, as programmes constantly
ebb and flow, but it is believed that GDUK currently has between
a two-thirds and three-quarter share of MoD C4I orders. However,
it should be noted that, in common with many other sectors of
the UK economy, market share is very much dependent upon performance,
and that unless GDUK continues to deliver the capability that
the MoD/Armed Forces want, and when they want it, GDUK's C4I market
share is liable to diminish.
4. NUMBER OF
EMPLOYEES WITHIN
WALES
Four hundred and fifty staff in Wales (380 GDUK
employees and 70 contractors/consultants); 1,050 GDUK staff in
the United Kingdom (970 GDUK employees and 80 contractors/consultants);
67,600 people employed world-wide by General Dynamics Corporation.
5. STRENGTHS/WEAKNESSES
OF MARKET
SECTOR
The strength of the UK defence C4I market sector
is that the Ministry of Defence has made it very clear over recent
months that Network Enabled Capability/Network Centric Warfare
is at the forefront of the capabilities that it wishes to acquire
over the next few years. Platforms will still be acquired, but
integrating them all into a network is where GDUK, with its system
integration skills, is well-positioned to meet the MoD's requirements.
The weakness of our market sector is that, in
common with the rest of the defence sector, GDUK is subject to
the vagaries of the MoD budget. Recent press reports of a £1.2
billion "black hole" in the MoD budget may mean that
programmes for which GDUK is ideally suited to bid may be postponed
or even cancelled. Any such action may well have an impact on
GDUK's employment/facility expansion plans (see Section 6 below).
6. PLANS FOR
EXPANSION OR
REDUCTION IN
OPERATIONS IN
WALES
GDUK has previously made it clear that it intends
not just to sustain but actively to expand its operations in Wales.
However, as stated in Section 5 above, this is very much dependent
on GDUK winning a healthy proportion of C4I business that MoD
intends to put to competition over the next two to three years.
It should be noted that GDUK has already entered
into discussions with the Welsh Development Agency over an extension
to GDUK's current facility at Oakdale, as GDUK is now close to
maximum occupancy at its Oakdale and Newbridge sites.
C J Bentley
Vice President Commercial
2 April 2004
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