Lockheed's PAC-3 Missile. (Brendon Smith / Breaking Defense)
DETROIT and WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin and General Motors have signed a partnership agreement aimed at harnessing GM’s manufacturing prowess to enable the world’s largest defense contractor to boost weapons production.
The memorandum of agreement, announced at the Reindustrialize Summit in Detroit, focuses on three areas: strengthening defense supply chains, advancing manufacturing, and “evaluating opportunities to expand production capacity through commercial manufacturing expertise and infrastructure,” the companies said in a news release.
Executives revealed few specifics about what the partnership will entail, but The Wall Street Journal reported that the companies are in talks about GM producing “commonly used parts” that could help Lockheed as it scales munitions production.
“What does a THAAD air defense interceptor have in common with Corvette?” Lockheed Chief Operating Officer Frank St. John said during the summit. “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.
