Boeing Defense, Space & Security

Boeing Defense, Space & Security, usually shortened to BDS, is the division of the Boeing Company that handles the corporation's military and space business. It is based in St. Louis County, Missouri, and builds military airplanes, rotorcraft and missiles, together with space systems for commercial and military customers, among them satellites, spacecraft and rockets. The division was formerly called Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, which was created in 2002 by joining the earlier Military Aircraft and Missile Systems and Space and Communications divisions. Its lineage draws on Boeing Military Airplane Company, Hughes Satellite Systems, Hughes Helicopters, Piasecki Helicopter, the McDonnell division of McDonnell Douglas and the former North American Aviation division of Rockwell International. In 2021 it made Boeing the third-largest defense contractor in the world.