A manufacturing state looks toward autonomy.
During World War II, the Willow Run Bomber Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, developed an automated assembly line to produce a B-24 Liberator bomber every 63 minutes Four score-plus years later, as the Defense Department seeks to upgrade its manufacturing capability, the state is back in the game.
“The opportunity is here in Michigan and, with our heritage, we’ve been able to take our strengths in manufacturing and R&D and design and engineering and apply it now to uncrewed systems.”
So said Mark Ignash amid the giant footprint of Michigan manufacturers and agencies at the recent XPONENTIAL 2026—23 pavilion partners from across the state along with representatives from several agencies and the Michigan National Guard. As a result of bureaucratic consolidation, Ignash himself sports the unwieldy title Director of Strategic Initiatives and Ecosystems Development for the Michigan Office of Defense & Aerospace Innovation. Perhaps that umbrella designation can cover the many companies under Michigan’s aerospace infrastructure.
“The ability for innovators to enter the market has unlocked so much of the potential in the state,” Ignash said, referencing show representation from not only larger but small and mid-sized firms, themselves part of more than 4,000 defense-aligned companies statewide. “We’re really not creating these industries in the state. They’re here, from the Upper Peninsula all the way down to the southern border. We’re just finding ways to elevate and magnify and bring this to bear for the result of the world to see.”
Ignash credited an XPOSITION event in Orlando several years back for Michigan’s flooding the zone in Detroit. “I was able to attend as part of a team and understood Michigan has a play here. Even if a given company’s not producing an entire uncrewed platform, they’ve got a part of the technology that can become a piece of this. And that’s the potential that’s been unlocked.” [As if to prove his point, French car giant Renault has just announced a toe-in-the-water collaboration to produce military drones.
Michigan officials understand the need for defense revitalization. On June 1st, the Michigan Economic Development Council issued a white paper* known as “Michigan Sounds the Alarm on America’s Defense Readiness Gap.” Stating that “America’s competitiveness now hinges on state-level support and ecosystem synchronization across sectors,” the document’s survey of senior defense and manufacturing leaders reveals a tension point: fully 98% of respondents are actively preparing for supply chain localization or reshoring America’s defense capabilities but 90% report difficulty recruiting employees for current defense needs, much less future ones. Moreover, half of AI and advanced manufacturing roles are said to be hard to fill across the sector. Cybersecurity positions are even more dificult to staff.
Integration, innovation and supply chain resilience are key, the paper says. Ignash drew on his own roots in a GM skilled-trades family to note the state’s labor pool for autonomy. “They’re just good at manufacturing, fabricating and building. Times change, certifications and regulations change, but we can do this too, work with advanced materials, specialty metals, the composites that maybe didn’t exist back in the days of those bombers.”
His secret sauce for statewide success? “You have to be intentional and you have to be consistent. You’ve got to show up and keep showing up.”
