GM, Ford and thousands of Michigan suppliers could compete for new defense business — and potentially new manufacturing, engineering, AI and skilled-trades jobs — as Washington races to rebuild depleted weapons inventories.
ANN ARBOR – The Iran war has exposed a potentially dangerous weakness in America’s military: the United States can fire some of its most sophisticated weapons much faster than American industry can replace them.
Fixing that problem could require billions of dollars in new production capacity, factories and supply-chain investment — creating new manufacturing, engineering, artificial intelligence and skilled-trades jobs across the country.
Michigan wants a big piece of that business.
General Motors and Ford Motor Co. are already positioning themselves for expanded defense work, while Michigan has unveiled a five-year strategy aimed at growing a defense economy that already generates roughly $30 billion in economic activity and supports more than 166,000 jobs.
The opportunity could extend well beyond traditional defense contractors.
Michigan’s thousands of automotive suppliers possess expertise in precision manufacturing, electronics, robotics, batteries, sensors, software and high-volume production — many of the same capabilities increasingly needed to build missiles, military vehicles, drones and autonomous weapons.
Nearly 85 years after Detroit became America’s “Arsenal of Democracy,” a new defense buildup could give Michigan’s changing automotive manufacturing base something it badly needs:
Another major customer — and potentially another source of high-paying jobs.
The unanswered question is how much of the coming Pentagon spending Michigan can capture.
Iran War Creates A Manufacturing Problem
The scale of America’s munitions problem became increasingly apparent during the Iran war.
Reuters reported Aug. 4 that the United States had used virtually all of some categories of long-range precision missiles available for the conflict, adding to concerns about inventories of other sophisticated weapons, including Patriot and THAAD air-defense interceptors and Tomahawk cruise missiles.
The Pentagon is now pushing defense manufacturers to rapidly increase production.
The Defense Department has instructed defense companies to develop plans for accelerating production of critical weapons, while billions of dollars are beginning to flow into expanded missile-manufacturing capacity.
Recent agreements worth more than $3 billion are aimed at expanding production of critical components used in Patriot and THAAD interceptors. Pentagon plans call for substantially increasing production of both systems.
The military also wants a dramatic increase in production of Tomahawk cruise missiles.
But modern weapons cannot simply be replaced by adding another shift to an assembly plant.
Missiles contain sophisticated electronics, guidance systems, sensors, propulsion systems and specialized materials produced by networks of contractors and subcontractors.
Some weapons require years to replenish in significant quantities.
That turns America’s ability to manufacture weapons into a national-security issue — and potentially an economic opportunity for states capable of producing them.
GM Sees Defense As A Growth Business
General Motors is already moving deeper into defense.
CEO Mary Barra identified GM Defense during GM’s July earnings report as one of the company’s growth businesses creating additional opportunities outside its traditional automotive operations.
GM Defense is expected to generate approximately $700 million in revenue this year — still small compared with GM’s enormous automotive business but increasingly significant as Washington searches for ways to expand America’s defense industrial base.
More importantly, GM is developing relationships with major defense contractors.
In June, GM Defense and Lockheed Martin announced an agreement to explore combining Lockheed Martin’s defense expertise with GM’s commercial manufacturing capabilities.
Among the objectives is strengthening defense supply chains and potentially expanding defense production capacity by applying GM’s high-volume manufacturing expertise.
GM Defense reportedly also has discussed potential cooperation with other major defense contractors.
GM doesn’t necessarily have to design the next Patriot missile.
Its potential value to the Pentagon may be something Detroit has understood for more than a century: how to manufacture complicated products at enormous scale.
That expertise could also create opportunities throughout GM’s Michigan supplier network.
Ford Is Moving Back Into Defense Too
Ford Motor Co. also sees an opportunity.
Governments in North America and Europe have approached Ford about supporting modern defense requirements, and the Dearborn automaker has publicly argued that its commercial vehicles, software, engineering and mass-manufacturing capabilities could help military customers deploy equipment more quickly and at lower cost.
Ford also has entered the competition to build the U.S. Army’s next heavy infantry tactical vehicle.
Its prototype for the Infantry Squad Vehicle-Heavy program will draw on Ford’s F-Series Super Duty platform.
The Army competition represents one of Ford’s most significant moves back into military vehicles since the company sold Ford Aerospace decades ago.
Ford has summed up its defense proposition in four words:
“Speed, scale, capability, and durability.”
Those same capabilities exist throughout Michigan’s automotive supply chain.
Could Auto Suppliers Become Defense Suppliers?
That could be where the largest Michigan employment opportunity emerges.
Michigan doesn’t necessarily need to become the place where Patriot, THAAD or Tomahawk missiles are assembled.
Those weapons already have established prime contractors and manufacturing locations.
But dramatically increasing production requires far more than expanding final assembly.
Missiles, drones, military vehicles and aerospace systems require thousands of components produced throughout extensive supply chains.
Those include electronics, sensors, precision-machined parts, castings, propulsion components, batteries, advanced materials, software, tooling and manufacturing equipment.
Michigan companies already produce many of those technologies for automotive, mobility and advanced manufacturing.
Some are already Pentagon suppliers.
Thousands of others potentially possess manufacturing capabilities that could be adapted to defense work.
For Michigan workers, that could translate into demand for engineers, software developers, artificial-intelligence specialists, machinists, electricians, technicians and other skilled manufacturing workers.
It also could provide Michigan automotive suppliers with another market at a time when electrification, automation and changing vehicle technology are disrupting traditional auto-industry business models.
So far, MITechNews has found no publicly announced Pentagon contract awarded specifically to a Michigan company to replenish weapons expended during the Iran war.
But the Pentagon’s production expansion is only beginning.
As major defense contractors increase output, they may need additional suppliers — and Michigan wants to be one of the places they look.
The Next Arsenal May Be Built Around Cheap Drones
There is another possibility: rebuilding America’s arsenal may not mean replacing every expensive weapon expended during the Iran war with another identical weapon.
Lessons from Ukraine and now Iran are accelerating military interest in what defense planners call “affordable mass” — producing large numbers of relatively inexpensive drones and autonomous weapons that can perform some missions now assigned to much more costly systems.
The Army is pursuing plans to acquire hundreds of thousands of small unmanned aircraft, including inexpensive one-way attack drones. The Pentagon also is examining cheaper unmanned systems capable of performing some missions currently handled by aircraft costing millions of dollars.
Cheap drones cannot replace Patriot and THAAD interceptors or sophisticated long-range missiles across the battlefield. Those systems provide speed, range, defensive capabilities and destructive power that small drones cannot duplicate.
But the economics of warfare are changing.
Using weapons costing millions of dollars against every lower-cost target can become difficult to sustain during a prolonged conflict. Thousands of inexpensive drones could handle some surveillance, reconnaissance and strike missions while allowing the military to reserve its most sophisticated weapons for targets that actually require them.
That could play directly to Michigan’s strengths — and potentially create an entirely new manufacturing sector.
The state’s defense strategy specifically identifies drones and unmanned systems as an industry Michigan wants to expand.
Many of the technologies needed to build autonomous systems already exist within Michigan’s automotive and mobility industries: electric motors, batteries, power electronics, sensors, cameras, communications systems, artificial intelligence, autonomous-driving software and high-volume manufacturing.
Michigan’s original Arsenal of Democracy was built around mass production.
The next one may be too.
Except instead of only tanks, trucks and bombers, Michigan factories could someday mass-produce drones, autonomous vehicles and AI-powered military systems.
Michigan Launches Five-Year Defense Expansion
The timing is striking.
Michigan has just released its Michigan Defense and Aerospace Strategic Plan 2026-2031, a five-year effort to expand the state’s defense industrial base.
The Michigan Office of Defense and Aerospace Innovation estimates Michigan’s defense economy generates approximately $30 billion in economic activity and supports more than 166,000 jobs.
The state has more than 4,000 defense-aligned companies and approximately 900 aerospace suppliers.
Michigan’s traditional military strength remains ground vehicles.
The Detroit Arsenal in Warren is home to the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command and the Army’s Ground Vehicle Systems Center, making Southeast Michigan one of the centers of U.S. military ground-vehicle research and procurement.
But Michigan’s new strategy aims considerably higher.
The state identifies growth opportunities involving drones and unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, aerospace, advanced aerial mobility, space technologies, cybersecurity, maritime technologies and advanced energy systems.
It also calls for strengthening Michigan’s defense supply chain and helping companies move technologies from prototypes into full-scale production.
The state’s theme for the effort is particularly appropriate:
“Reimagining the Arsenal of Democracy.”
Michigan Already Has A Defense Industrial Base
Michigan isn’t starting from scratch.
The state is home to General Dynamics Land Systems in Sterling Heights and numerous companies producing military vehicles, transmissions, vehicle systems, armor, electronics and other defense-related products.
Michigan also possesses major military and testing assets including Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Camp Grayling and the National All-Domain Warfighting Center.
The state has 13 of the nation’s APEX Accelerators, which help companies navigate government contracting and compete for federal business.
Patrick Anderson, CEO of the Anderson Economic Group, told MITechNews following the Iran war that depleted weapons inventories will generate additional demand.
“The depletion of munitions and the wartime strain on defense assets means there will be new demand for replacing them,” Anderson said. “Much of that work can be done in the region that was once the ‘arsenal of democracy’ in WWII.”
Anderson said America’s World War II mobilization illustrates how broadly military spending can spread through an industrial economy.
Factories weren’t simply producing tanks and bombers. They needed engines, components, tooling, clothing, containers and thousands of other products supporting a military at war.
Today’s defense industry is very different and the scale of any industrial conversion would be considerably smaller.
But the supply-chain principle remains.
“Because Michigan is still the home of so much manufacturing, I think our state will get more of that business than most states,” Anderson said.
Michigan Has Plenty Of Competition
Winning that business won’t be automatic.
Michigan’s own strategic plan acknowledges weaknesses including fragmentation within the state’s defense ecosystem, inconsistent incentives and limited national recognition compared with states possessing large aerospace and military clusters.
Michigan also faces aggressive competition from states including Ohio, Alabama and Pennsylvania.
Those states want the same factories, Pentagon contracts and highly paid engineering and manufacturing jobs.
Michigan’s enormous automotive supply chain could provide an advantage — particularly if GM and Ford demonstrate that commercial automotive manufacturing can be successfully adapted to defense production.
But that advantage still has to be converted into contracts.
Workers Could Become The Next Shortage
Ironically, Michigan could win new defense investment and then confront another problem: finding enough workers.
A defense-industry workforce study released this summer found widespread difficulty recruiting people with skills required for advanced defense manufacturing.
Artificial intelligence, engineering, cybersecurity, skilled trades and advanced manufacturing are increasingly competing for limited pools of specialized workers.
That could make workforce development as important as economic-development incentives.
Michigan may possess the factories, suppliers and engineering heritage necessary to participate in a defense manufacturing boom but struggle to find enough workers to expand production.
The state’s defense strategy consequently identifies talent development as one of its priorities.
Iran Isn’t The Only Concern — There’s China
The national-security stakes extend beyond replacing weapons expended against Iran.
Military planners have warned that a conflict with China, particularly over Taiwan, could consume enormous quantities of precision-guided missiles, air-defense interceptors, drones and other sophisticated weapons in a matter of weeks.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies has warned that rebuilding U.S. missile inventories is a multiyear undertaking.
That leaves Washington confronting two problems simultaneously: replacing weapons already used while maintaining enough inventory to deter — or potentially fight — another major adversary.
The Iran war has demonstrated how quickly sophisticated weapons can be consumed.
The question now is whether America’s industrial base can manufacture replacements quickly enough.
Another Customer For Michigan
During World War II, Detroit’s automobile industry became America’s Arsenal of Democracy, turning automotive factories and suppliers toward production of tanks, trucks, engines and aircraft.
No comparable conversion of America’s civilian economy is being contemplated today.
Modern weapons are vastly more complex, defense contracting requirements are more demanding and America’s economy is fundamentally different from what it was in 1941.
But the underlying industrial question sounds familiar.
Does America possess enough factories, engineers, workers and suppliers to produce military equipment as quickly as modern warfare consumes it?
GM and Ford appear to see an opportunity in solving that problem.
Michigan does too.
Billions of dollars are beginning to flow toward rebuilding America’s depleted weapons inventories and expanding the defense industrial base.
So far, MITechNews has found no publicly announced Iran-war replenishment contract that has landed directly with a Michigan company.
But the competition for that money is only beginning.
And Michigan’s biggest opportunity may extend beyond helping traditional defense contractors build more expensive missiles.
It could involve taking technologies developed for automobiles — batteries, sensors, electric motors, artificial intelligence, autonomy and high-volume manufacturing — and applying them to a new generation of drones and military systems designed to be produced quickly and affordably.
Nearly 85 years after Michigan helped arm America for World War II, the state has another opportunity to compete for a larger role in America’s defense industry.
For Michigan’s changing automotive manufacturing economy, that could mean billions of dollars in new business.
And for Michigan workers, it could mean something even more important:
JOBS.
