Arsenal of Democracy, 2.0

As the Pentagon shifts from planning for big land wars to combatting small insurgencies, it’s been busy eliminating weapons programs and facilities across the country. And because of its abundance of skilled workers and institutional knowledge of making the tools of war, 
metro Detroit stands to benefit

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Illustration by John Dunivant

The future success of the United States military is being waged at a circuit board factory in Wayne County’s fledgling Aerotropolis district, as well as at hundreds of other private facilities across metro Detroit. The challenge for the private sector is that the military’s objectives can change without notice, depending on when and where global conflicts arise.

A $4-billion industry, the design and production of military parts and systems in metro Detroit may ebb and flow, especially as the federal government emphasizes rapid deployment over massive Cold War-era armaments, but the orders never stop. Armed with an institutional knowledge of supplying tanks, armaments, weapons, and specialty components, as well as offering one of the world’s most sought-after skilled workforces, the region has maintained and enhanced its standing as a technical and mechanized stalwart in protecting and defending America and its allies around the world.

“You never know what’s going to happen — or where. That’s why preparation and rapid adaptability are key to servicing the needs of the military,” says Yash Sutariya, vice president of corporate strategy at Saturn Electronics Corp. in Romulus. “We wear a lot of different hats, whether a ship gets caught in a typhoon that delays an order for circuit boards or [due to] the ever-changing nature of prototyping, which is 30 percent of our business.”

Circuit boards are akin to the human brain. Because a cockpit display in an F-15 fighter jet is only as good as the circuit board that controls it, Sutariya and his 145-person staff have to be at the top of their game. “Everything is getting smaller and more efficient,” says Jon Rimanelli, vice president of business development at Saturn Electronics and principal of Nextronix Inc., a sister company to Saturn.

While the hundreds of circuit boards being produced inside Saturn’s 94,000-square-foot facility may appear the same, the uses are diverse — whether servicing applications like radar, unmanned air vehicles, weaponry, heads-up wearable displays, or night vision systems.
The same demand for exacting specifications can be found at hundreds of other companies across the region that service the military. But the field is becoming more crowded — and complicated.

That’s abundantly clear as Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes, tall and thin, and wearing desert camouflage fatigues, offered a recent PowerPoint presentation at the Hyatt Regency Dearborn outlining how the U.S. military is undergoing a sea change in its approach to war procurement and preparation — and strategies for future conflicts. As the Army’s deputy chief of staff for programs, Speakes offered an assessment of the future of U.S. combat vehicles.

As he talked, some 500 executives from Michigan and across the country jotted down notes or typed on laptops. In almost all cases, the executives represented companies that service military contracts — or want them.

Citing “America’s retreat from abroad,” Speakes and others spoke of the need to make U.S. military forces more nimble and mobile to fight smaller wars and insurgencies, while at the same time keeping soldiers safe. That means better command and communications equipment, safer and more effective combat vehicles, more robots, more computers — more innovation.

But there’s a problem. As more and more Michigan firms find work in the auto industry drying up, they are increasingly looking to defense and, to a lesser extent, Homeland Security, to stay in business. At the same time, the Department of Defense is downsizing and consolidating its forces, killing expensive high-tech weapons systems that were originally designed for major land and air battles in the Cold War era. As much as possible, heavy equipment is being refurbished — a process Speakes called reset.

“We’re swamped with companies seeking military contracts,” says Beth Cryderman Moss, director of the Macomb Regional Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) in Warren. “It can be confusing if you’ve never done business with the defense industry. If you’re a spark plug company, we can tell you who (in the military) buys plugs, and what their needs are.”

As the war in Iraq winds down and the future U.S. military role in Afghanistan is hotly debated, the outlook for new contracts isn’t as crystal-clear as it once was.

Some 70 years ago, Detroit industrial leaders like Henry Ford, William Knudsen, K.T. Keller, and dozens of others were called on by the White House to gear up for what would become World War II. Starting in the summer of 1940 — some 18 months before Pearl Harbor — the so-called Automotive Committee for Air Defense was formed and began laying the groundwork for the Atlantic and Pacific conflicts.

Throughout World War II, the military spent upward of $20 billion in metro Detroit, the highest total invested among businesses in any large city. The resulting production included war planes, military trucks, armored cars, and tanks — a Chrysler plant in Warren, completed in the spring of 1941, went on to produce 25,000 tanks throughout the war effort.

Today, the federal government spends as much as $800 billion (the true number is classified) on defense. About $4 billion comes to Michigan,according to the Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC), a quasi-public development agency that helps link businesses large and small to military contracts.

That includes the U.S. Army’s main procurement agency — the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Command in Warren — which has been growing in size and importance as the Pentagon closes facilities around the country and consolidates that work in metro Detroit. The unit, known as TACOM, spent about $25 billion in fiscal year 2009 (ending in Sept)., says Cryderman Moss.

In the Macomb-St. Clair region alone, about $300 million in military contracts were awarded in fiscal 2008, Cryderman Moss notes. At the same time, her office saw a jump in companies seeking assistance on contracts, from 480 in September 2008 to 765 this past September. “Usually we see about the same numbers from year to year, but this has been a huge increase.” she says.

Where before the entire region joined in the war effort, the primary supplier area today is referred to as the “Defense Corridor” — a rectangle of small and large military contractors in Macomb County stretching north from the Detroit Arsenal on East 11 Mile to 19 Mile, and from Mound to Van Dyke.

But there are military contractors all across Michigan, including Bates Footwear in Big Rapids, which traces its roots to 1885 and has been one of the nation’s largest suppliers of combat boots and uniform footwear. There’s also Trijicon Inc. in Wixom, which makes advanced telescopic sniper sights, and Fab Masters Co. in Marcellus, south of Kalamazoo, which fabricates parts like window frames for military vehicles.

And the defense business remains gigantic, even as it downsizes. A single defense contract can involve many firms and institutions. One giant national contractor in the “Corridor,” General Dynamics — which makes the Abrams main battle tank and missile systems, among other items — this fall was awarded a $430-million Army contract for engineering and manufacturing services.

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