General Dynamics is well-balanced between commercial and defense work. The defense work sustained the company during the difficult economic environment following the Covid-19 epidemic.  

General Dynamics is the world’s largest manufacturer of ground combat systems. The company has a strong presence in Europe as well as the United States. The combat systems segment derives significantly more than half of its sales from the United States and the remainder internationally.  

Marine Systems has an extremely strong position in submarine manufacturing as the business ramps up with work underway on ballistic missile submarines. Nearly 70% of this segment’s revenue is attributed to nuclear-powered submarines. Colombia-class submarine procurements are planned in to the 2040s.  

General Dynamics maintains a strong position in cyber security due to past acquisitions and now derives more revenues from the growing area than any other major defense company.

General Dynamics’ business jet position in the high end of the market gives the company greater pricing power and higher profit margins than its competitors. The company has been innovative in bringing out new products. Its G650 seized the high end of the market at a time when Bombardier was preoccupied with the launch of the CSeries. It furthered its position on the high end of the market with the launch of the G700, which entered service in mid-2024. It was in 2020 that the first five ultra-long-range Gulfstream G700 undertook test flights.  

General Dynamics had revenue of $47.716 billion in 2024, up 13% from $42.272 billion in 2023 which was up 7% from 2022. Compared to other defense and aerospace companies, General Dynamics had a relatively modest negative impact to its financial performance due to the global pandemic.  

Its total operating profit was $4.796 billion in 2024, up 13% from $4.245 billion in 2023 and finally surpassing its previous high of $4.57 billion achieved in 2019. The company’s operating margin has declined from a high of 13.5% in 2017 to 10% in 2023 and 2024.  

Long-term debt did rise sharply following the acquisition of CSRA in 2018, increasing to $11.4 billion in that year versus only $4 billion in 2017. Except for an increase during the height of the pandemic, management has reduced long-term debt to $7.3 billion by the end of 2024.  

The U.S. Government is its largest customer, accounting for 69% of total revenues in 2024. This has been trending up following the CSRA acquisition, having been just 61% in 2017.  General Dynamics maintains a healthy backlog of business to feed its operations over the near-term. At year-end 2024, the backlog totaled $90.6 billion, slightly less than two times annual revenue.  

With the release of its 2025 first half results, management’s outlook for the full year projects total consolidated revenue of $51.2 billion or a 7% increase above 2024 full year revenue. Operating margins were projected to be 10.3% for all of 2025.