Just as it ended 2025, General Dynamics (GD) began 2026 with strong financial results, again led by the shipbuilding business while all of the company’s operating segments touted top and bottom-line increases in the first quarter.
Net income rose 13% to $1.1 billion, $4.10 earnings per share (EPS), from $994 million ($3.66 EPS).
Sales increased 10% to $13.5 billion from $12.2 billion and demand for the company’s systems and services remains high. GD booked $26.6 billion in orders, nearly two times sales, and backlog rose 11 percent to $130.8 billion from $118 billion at the end of 2025.
GD’s Marine Systems increased sales and operating earnings 21% and 26% respectively, led by higher volume from the Navy’s Virginia-class attack and Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine programs, improved performance and higher productivity across the company’s shipyards.
Materiel and labor throughput continue to improve in the shipbuilding businesses as is supply chain quality, Danny Deep, the company’s president, said on an earnings call.
Areas of the supply chain still needing to improve their throughput are those with “complex components or complex systems where there are just single sources of supply,” Deep said.
Asked by an analyst on the earnings call about details around the new Trump-class battleship, Deep replied the program is in the “early stages” and that GD is working with a partner on “some of the detailed design.”
“I know that the administration wants to move as quickly as possible on it but it’s just a little early now for us to be able to define exact timelines, but we’re part of that process today,” Deep said.
Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily first published a version of this story.