GM, Ford race for spot in military industrial boom
Detroit is making moves toward reclaiming its once-prolific role supporting the U.S. military as President Donald Trump calls for more weapons and more factories to build them.
Multiple wars and Trump’s dream of a manufacturing renaissance are fueling demand for the U.S. defense industry and contractors. Known as the Arsenal of Democracy for building weapons and militarized vehicles during World War II, Detroit and hometown automakers Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. are once again emerging as potential defense powerhouses.
This wouldn’t be the first time. In the early days of World War II, the Roosevelt administration pressed Detroit’s automakers to convert plant capacity to production of war materiel - trucks and Jeeps, tanks and the B-24 Liberator bombers minted at Ford’s massive Willow Run complex. The massive industrial mobilization, dubbed the Arsenal of Democracy, is widely credited with helping the allies win the war.
GM and Ford this week flexed their manufacturing and automotive capabilities on the global stage in both Detroit and Paris, with eyes on securing a piece of the growing demand for defense equipment.
“There’s hundreds of billions of dollars that’s up in the air for contracts with the U.S. government,” Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said, “and the Big Three want a piece of that.”
Stellantis NV has been less involved in defense work, but Ives said he expects the Jeep-maker and parent of Ram trucks to become more active in the coming year.
GM Defense LLC on Tuesday officially joined forces with Lockheed Martin to help the major defense manufacturer triple or quadruple production in the next several years.
The announcement came at Reindustrialize, a manufacturing, defense and technology-focused conference in downtown Detroit’s renovated Hudson’s building. GM parked a military green-colored Infantry Squad Vehicle Troop Carrier outside for investors and entrepreneurs to climb in.
“What does a (terminal high altitude area defense) air defense interceptor have in common with the Corvette?” said Bruce Brown, GM Defense’s vice president of strategy, at Reindustrialize. “Well, both of them are highly engineered, both of them are precision manufactured, both of them have broad and diverse supply chains, and both of them are produced at rate.
“And so what this is about is not trying to blend products, if you will, but to take the best of the infrastructure expertise and how we manage our businesses and learn from each other to raise the tide for defense industrial base across the nation.”
Meanwhile in Paris, Ford advertised its fleet of tactical and utility vehicles at Eurosatory 2026, the world’s largest international exhibition for the land, air-land defense and security industry.
Ford and GM’s growing presence on the defense stage comes after the Pentagon earlier this year spoke with Ford CEO Jim Farley and GM CEO Mary Barra about upping the Michigan automakers’ role in U.S. defense manufacturing.
“Historically, the strength of our nation has been tied to the strength of our manufacturing,” Lockheed Martin COO Frank St. John told Reindustrialize attendees. “National deterrence is inexorably tied to the men and women that are on the factory floor, and so this is an opportunity for us to share our strengths and build on what has been a ramp-up that we’ve been on for a couple of years now.”
What’s next
Lockheed Martin is investing $9 billion in 20 facilities to increase its manufacturing capacity to meet demand from the U.S. government, St. John said.
GM Defense, launched in 2017, is not setting aside large-scale investments as part of its partnership with Lockheed but is building on broader investments across its U.S. footprint - $9 billion in capital and $7 billion in research and development.
GM’s current defense projects include infantry squad vehicles based on Chevrolet Colorado pickups, armored Suburbans, and the electric propulsion system for new lunar rovers.
“Since 2017, we’ve been able to become a billion-dollar revenue business here, and certainly an emerging and growth business as part of General Motors,” Brown said.
Governments already use Ford vehicles for security, Ford Rangers for military transport and Police Interceptor Explorers for law enforcement fleets.
Last year, several governments in North America and Europe engaged with Ford to discuss how its commercial vehicles and technologies could support their modern defense needs. The company is exploring the defense market and is in discussions with various governments, as well as converter partners, spokesperson Richard Binhammer said.
Ford executives this week attended the Eurosatory defense show in Paris to further discussions with European governments about how its commercial vehicles and supporting ecosystem could support their needs. Ford sees defense as a way to build off its core business into areas that are less cyclical and technology-driven.
“Ford is uniquely positioned,” Binhammer said in a statement, “to build on the strength of its Ranger and Ranger Super Duty vehicles to offer platforms that can be easily upfitted to deliver commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions quickly, efficiently, and at a competitive cost, combined with our existing fleet services, global supply chain and industrial infrastructure.”
Detroit News Staff Writer Breana Noble contributed.
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This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 3:34 PM.