The Army’s race to build the XM30, the planned replacement for the M2 Bradley, has turned into a make or break moment for southeast Michigan manufacturing. From Sterling Heights to Auburn Hills, automotive and defense suppliers are being pitched as crucial cogs in a multiyear effort that could reroute billions in Pentagon business and hundreds of local jobs. For metro Detroit, the contest feels less like a distant defense procurement and more like a region wide stress test of whether local factories can flip automotive know how into next generation military hardware.
Two teams, national money, local factories
The Army has narrowed the XM30 competition to two teams, General Dynamics Land Systems and American Rheinmetall, and the program has been…..