The Pentagon is quietly asking Detroit to dust off a wartime playbook. The Wall Street Journal reports that defense officials have held early talks with head honchos at companies including General Motors, Ford, GE Aerospace, and machinery manufacturer Oshkosh about using their factories and workforces to expand US weapons production, according to sources familiar with the talks. With stockpiles strained by the wars in Ukraine and Iran, officials are exploring whether big manufacturers can quickly pivot to making munitions, missiles, counterdrone hardware, and other gear as a supplement to traditional defense contractors.
A Defense Department official said the department aims to "rapidly [expand] the defense industrial base" by tapping into available commercial options and tech. That official added, per Fox Business, that the Pentagon "is aggressively pursuing and integrating the best of American innovation, wherever it resides, to deliver production at scale and drive resiliency across supply chains." The outreach, framed as a national security issue, predates the Iran conflict but has taken on new urgency as the administration pushes to put the industry on a "wartime footing" and seeks a record $1.5 trillion defense budget heavy on munitions and drones, per the Journal.
The Independent notes that US supplies of key weaponry, including Tomahawk missiles, are quickly dwindling due to the conflict in Iran. Executives were asked during the reported discussions what obstacles—like contracting rules or bidding requirements—might limit their ability to take on more defense work, per the Journal. The move echoes previous efforts, from World War II's "Arsenal of Democracy" to automakers' pandemic-era ventilator production, but it would still represent a shift for companies whose defense units remain a small slice of their overall business.
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