General Dynamics beat analysts' quarterly profit estimates with a boost from warship production and the first revenue gain at the defense contractor's mobile-communications unit since 2013.

Sales rose at all three defense units, perhaps a signal that military cuts have neared a bottom. U.S. arms spending may rise for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 as politicians "strike a strong defense posture" before the 2016 elections, according Bloomberg Intelligence analyst George Ferguson.

First-quarter profit from continuing operations rose 20 percent to $716 million, or $2.14 per share, from $596 million, or $1.71, a year earlier, General Dynamics said Wednesday in a statement. Analysts had predicted $1.95, according to the average of 17 estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Marine Systems revenue jumped 21 percent. Falls Church, Virginia-based General Dynamics won an $18 billion Navy contract last year for 10 more Virginia-class attack submarines, the biggest weapons deal by the military in more than a dozen years.

Information Systems and Technology, which provides mobile telecommunications equipment and services to troops, saw sales gain 3.9 percent, the first increase since the end of 2013. General Dynamics, the third-largest U.S. defense contractor, said quarterly sales rose 7.1 percent to $7.78 billion, beating analysts' estimates of $7.43 billion.

Sales, outstripping estimates for shipbuilding and information technology, may "signal some stabilization in the end markets," Robert Stallard, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said in a note to clients.

Sales at the Aerospace unit, which makes the Gulfstream business jet, fell 0.8 percent, the first drop since 2011. Gulfstream delivered 32 fully outfitted jets during the quarter, seven fewer than a year earlier.

General Dynamics had leaned on Gulfstream to grow earnings in the last two years as Pentagon budget cuts and the pullback in Afghanistan crimped defense sales.

Even with the decline in revenue, profit rose at the Aerospace unit on production efficiencies for its flagship G650 jet, for which deliveries began in December 2012. Howard Rubel, an analyst with Jefferies LLC, said the unit's profit margins topped his estimate by 2 percentage points.

"Aerospace exhibited the largest margin beat," Rubel said in a note after the earnings release.