General Dynamics Mission Systems — 3 prefixes (MA-L)

General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS) holds three IEEE MA-L blocks — 00:A0:21, 00:25:D4, and 00:14:8C — all registered to the same address at 150 Rustcraft Road, Dedham, MA 02026, US. GDMS is a business unit of General Dynamics Corporation, formed in January 2015 by merging General Dynamics C4 Systems with General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems; its public-facing operations are headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia, though the OUI registry address remains the legacy Dedham, MA location. The reason GDMS matters far more than its three-block footprint suggests is the kind of hardware those prefixes ride on. GDMS is a US defense contractor whose flagship product line is the TACLANE family of inline network encryptors — NSA-certified Type 1 devices implementing High Assurance Internet Protocol Encryption (HAIPE) to protect classified traffic on military and government networks. The practical analyst takeaway: a GDMS MAC prefix observed on a network strongly implies military, federal-government, or cleared-contractor infrastructure, and TACLANE or related tactical-communications hardware. Seeing a GDMS OUI outside a known defense or government context is anomalous and warrants investigation. A data-quality caveat applies as with every OUI entry: IEEE publishes no registration dates, so the "1998" and "2017" dates that third-party MAC databases attach to 00:A0:21 are scraper artifacts, not IEEE facts, and must never be presented as registration dates. Note also that a separate "General Dynamics IT" MA-S registration is a different legal entity and does not belong to this vendor.

IEEE assignment

3 prefixes → General Dynamics Mission Systems, registered 150 Rustcraft Road, Dedham, MA 02026, US [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry (IEEE MA-L)

Registry / block size

MA-L (24-bit OUI); 3 blocks (00:A0:21, 00:25:D4, 00:14:8C), each ~16.7M addresses [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry. NOTE: IEEE's public OUI data publishes NO assignment/registration date (the IEEE MA-L registry columns are only Registry, Assignment, Organization Name, Organization Address); third-party tools citing "22 April 1998" / "28 December 2017" for 00:A0:21 are database artifacts, not IEEE facts.

HQ / country

150 Rustcraft Road, Dedham, MA 02026, US (registry address); public operating HQ now Chantilly, VA, US [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry (registry); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_Mission_Systems (operating HQ)

Company status

active [Confirmed] — https://gdmissionsystems.com/

Parent company

General Dynamics Corporation [Confirmed] — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_Mission_Systems

Company history

formed January 2015 by merging General Dynamics C4 Systems with General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems [Confirmed] — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_Mission_Systems

Device types

NSA-certified inline network encryptors (TACLANE family, HAIPE-class — e.g. TACLANE-Micro KG-175D, TACLANE-Nano KG-175N, TACLANE-FLEX); tactical radio and communications hardware; deployable LTE base stations (Fortress LTE); satellite ground / maritime systems [Confirmed] — https://gdmissionsystems.com/encryption/taclane-network-encryption ; https://www.gd.com/Articles/2017/07/26/general-dynamics-adds-new-nsa-certified-taclane-flex-type-1-network-encryption-platform

Notable products

TACLANE network encryptors (HAIPE Type 1) [Confirmed] — https://gdmissionsystems.com/encryption/taclane-network-encryption

Verified prefixes (all MA-L, General Dynamics Mission Systems)

00:A0:21, 00:25:D4, 00:14:8C [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry ; https://maclookup.app/macaddress/00a021

MA-M / MA-S assignments

none under this exact org name [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-M registry, the IEEE MA-S registry. A "General Dynamics IT" MA-S entry (8C1F64F7C) exists in the IEEE MA-S registry but is a different legal entity and is NOT this vendor.

Industry

defense electronics / secure communications / government IT [Confirmed] — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_Mission_Systems

Security context

high. GDMS produces NSA-certified Type 1 (classified-grade) network encryption hardware; a GDMS OUI on a network strongly indicates military, federal-government, or cleared-contractor infrastructure. TACLANE devices implement HAIPE protecting classified traffic. A GDMS prefix outside a known defense/government context is anomalous and warrants investigation. (GDMS was sanctioned by the Chinese government in May 2024 over Taiwan arms sales — a geopolitical fact, not a product-security flaw.) [Confirmed] — https://gdmissionsystems.com/encryption/taclane-network-encryption ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_Mission_Systems

Analyst note

a GDMS OUI on a globally-administered address identifies genuine GDMS hardware, very likely a TACLANE encryptor or associated tactical-communications/management device in a defense or government environment. Treat its appearance on a non-defense network as worth investigating.