The Detroit News
May 6, 2026
Max Bryan
In Oakland County, the defense industry has experienced a nearly 29% growth in gross regional product from 2016 to 2025. While it represented 0.3% of the county’s gross regional product or total economic output in 2025, jobs have grown 48.9% in that timespan, according to data from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
While Macomb County has long been known as a defense hub, Oakland County has the second-highest value of defense contracts in the region at $216 million, according to the Detroit Regional Chamber.
“If you look at what exists here, we have the industrial base, we have the talent and we have the supply chain. So we have the fundamentals to be able to participate in a growing defense sector,” said Glenn Stevens Jr., Executive Director of MichAuto at the Detroit Regional Chamber.
Michigan is in a good position to take advantage of “surging” global defense spending, Stevens said. Schirmer said American Rheinmetall has started focusing on producing munition shells because of a U.S. shortage from lending missiles to allies Ukraine and Israel and using them in Iran.