Braddock, Dunn & McDonald, later known as BDM, then BDM International, was a technical services firm founded in 1959 in New York City. Its founders were Dr. Joseph V. Braddock, [1] Dr. Bernard J. Dunn, [2] and Dr. Daniel F. McDonald, [3] who each received a PhD from Fordham University in the Bronx, New York. In 1997, TRW purchased BDM, and in 2002 Northrop Grumman bought TRW.
Within a year of its founding, the company moved to El Paso, Texas, to be close to the U.S. Army's Air Defense Center at Fort Bliss, Texas, the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, and Holloman Air Force Base, also in New Mexico. The founders offered their experience in missile guidance, applied optics, electronic instrumentation, and radiation physics to the U.S. Defense Department, primarily to the U.S. Army. [4] [5]
A few years later the three founders hired Earle Williams, an engineer with a degree from Auburn University in Alabama, who eventually became President and CEO. He led the company through a time of rapid growth and expansion. Among Williams's most significant decisions was to move BDM to the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., a few miles west of the Pentagon. That location offered the company a better opportunity to compete for defense contracts than it could from El Paso. [6] [7] For the rest of its existence as a company it occupied a series of ever-larger office spaces in an unincorporated area known as Tysons Corner, Virginia, formed by the interchange of the newly completed Capital Beltway and Virginia Routes 7 and 123. [8]
The company grew rapidly, along with Tysons Corner. In the early 1960s Tysons Corner was a sleepy crossroads, but has since grown into a classic "edge city", and a home of many government and military contractors. Williams promoted the area as a suitable place for technology-oriented firms. Tysons Corner and the surrounding towns became the home of many of BDM's competitors, including Planning Research Corporation, DynCorp International, and CACI. Although all competed with BDM, in the buildup of defense budgets in the late 20th century, nearly all prospered. [9] For a time, the press referred to these companies as "Beltway bandit", [10] [11] [12] the phrase was originally a mild insult, implying that the companies preyed like bandits on the generosity of the federal government. Employees of those companies, including BDM President Earle Williams, took offense to that term. [13]
Although the location of the headquarters of these defense contractors was part of an overall trend of movement to the suburbs beginning in the 1960s, BDM played a leading role in the specifics of this movement into the Virginia suburbs of Washington. [14]
In 1988, BDM was purchased by Ford Aerospace and became a part of Ford Motor Company. [15] [16] In 1990, Ford Aerospace was sold to Loral and BDM was spun off to the Carlyle Group. [17] [18] In 1997, BDM was purchased by TRW, an aerospace systems and technical services company, [19] [20] which in turn was acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2002. [21] [22]
Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. With a population of 1,150,309 as of the 2020 census, it is the most populous county in Virginia, the most populous jurisdiction in the Washington metropolitan area, and the most populous location in the Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area. The county seat is Fairfax; however, because it is an independent city under Virginia law, the city of Fairfax is not part of the county.
Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following a prolonged hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroughs Corporation, which merged the combined operation under the new name Unisys. Some of Sperry's former divisions became part of Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, and Northrop Grumman.
Tysons, also known as Tysons Corner, is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, spanning from the corner of SR 123 and SR 7. It is part of the Washington metropolitan area and located in Northern Virginia between McLean and Vienna along the I-495.
Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense company. With 95,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military technology providers. The firm ranked No. 101 on the 2022 Fortune 500 list of America's largest corporations.
TRW Inc. was an American corporation involved in a variety of businesses, mainly aerospace, electronics, automotive, and credit reporting. It was a pioneer in multiple fields including electronic components, integrated circuits, computers, software and systems engineering. TRW built many spacecraft, including Pioneer 1, Pioneer 10, and several space-based observatories. It was #57 on the 1986 Fortune 500 list, and had 122,258 employees. The company was called Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc., after the 1958 merger of the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation and Thompson Products. This was later shortened to TRW.
The Washington–Baltimore combined metropolitan statistical area is a statistical area, including the overlapping metropolitan areas of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. The region includes Central Maryland, Northern Virginia, three counties in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, and one county in south-central Pennsylvania. It is the most educated, highest-income, and third-most populous combined statistical area in the United States behind New York City–Newark, NJ and Los Angeles–Long Beach.
Beltway bandit is a term for private companies located in or near Washington, D.C., whose major business is to provide consulting services to the federal government of the United States. The phrase was originally a mild insult, implying that the companies preyed like bandits on the generosity of the federal government, but it has lost much of its pejorative nature and is now often used as a neutral, descriptive term.
LucasVarity plc was a UK automotive parts manufacturer, created by a merger of the British Lucas Industries plc, and the North American Varity Corporation in August 1996.
Ronald D. Sugar is an American business executive. He was the chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the Northrop Grumman Corporation from 2003 to 2009. In August 2018 he was elected as chairman of Uber.
Donald Charles Winter is an American technologist and business leader who served as United States Secretary of the Navy. A former top executive of TRW, Aerospace & Defense, he was nominated in 2005 by President George W. Bush, confirmed by the United States Senate, and took the oath of office on January 3, 2006. In January 2009 Defense Secretary Robert Gates requested that Winter remain in office until President Obama picked his successor on March 13, 2009. He resigned on March 13.
The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) was to be the United States' next-generation satellite system that would monitor the Earth's weather, atmosphere, oceans, land, and near-space environment. NPOESS satellites were to host proven technologies and operational versions of sensors that were under operational-prototyping by NASA, at that time. The estimated launch date for the first NPOESS satellite, "C1" or "Charlie 1" was around 2013. Issues with sensor developments were the primary cited reason for delays and cost-overruns.
The Vinnell Corporation is an international private military company based in Herndon, Virginia, United States, specializing in military training, logistics, and support in the form of weapon systems maintenance and management consultancy. Vinnell Corporation is a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Corporation. They are also party to other joint-venture companies, e.g. Vinnell-Brown & Root (VBR). The Vinnell Corporation was mentioned in Fahrenheit 9/11 for its connections to the Carlyle Group, George W. Bush, and the Saudi Royal family.
KC-X was the United States Air Force (USAF) program to procure its next-generation aerial refueling tanker aircraft to replace some of their older Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers. The contest was for a production contract for 179 new tankers with estimated value of US$35 billion. The two contenders to replace the KC-135 aircraft were Boeing and EADS, following the elimination of US Aerospace, Inc. from the bidding process.
TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. was an American global supplier of automotive systems, modules, and components to automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and related aftermarkets. Tracing its roots from TRW Inc. it was originally headquartered in Livonia, Michigan. It was created in 2002 when the aerospace company Northrop Grumman purchased TRW and sold its automotive division to Blackstone Group.
Bernard Joseph Dunn was a noted Washington, D.C. area scientist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He cofounded Braddock Dunn & McDonald with fellow Fordham University professors in 1959, and served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Scientist.
Paul E. Ceruzzi is curator emeritus at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Tysons Corner Communications Tower, also known as Site E, is a classified United States military microwave tower located in Tysons Corner, Virginia. The tower is administered by the United States Army from Fort Belvoir.
Wesley G. Bush is an American systems engineer and business executive. He is the former CEO and chairman of Northrop Grumman, and he is currently a director of General Motors, Dow Inc., and Cisco.
Space Park is an aerospace engineering campus occupying over 100 acres in Redondo Beach, California, since 1961, expanding in 1968 to a nearly adjacent 90 acres in Manhattan Beach.
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