LANSING, Mich.—Saab, Inc., a Swedish aerospace and weapons company, announced last month its tenth U.S. facility will be built in Grayling, Michigan, and is expected to be operational by 2026.
The $75-million facility will produce missile weapons systems for the U.S. military, including components for Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bombs (GLSDB), which saw their first use in combat by Ukrainian forces against Russia. The Taiwanese military is another potential future customer for GLSDBs, according to reports. The facility will also make components for close combat weapons.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is pitching the future facility as a reflection of Michigan’s “reputation as a national leader in defense and advanced manufacturing” and claims the weapons factory will bring “good-paying jobs.”
At an Oct. 3 news conference alongside Erik Smith, the president and CEO of Saab North America, Inc., Whitmer said, “We look forward to Saab’s future growth in Michigan and will work with local partners to get this project across the finish line the right way, ensuring community input is plugged in every step of the way.”
GLSDBs, which will be a key product line at the plant, combine GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs with a rocket-propelled motor to extend their range and improve their killing accuracy.
GBU-39s, which are developed by Boeing, are 250-pound bombs which saw their first use in the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Weapons experts cited by The Washington Post believe GBU-39s were used in a May 2024 Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp in the city of Rafah that killed more than 40 people.
In August, anti-war activists with CodePink encouraged state residents to oppose the proposed facility in Grayling, a city just over 200 miles north of Detroit that houses the Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center.
“[O]ur priorities should shift away from hyper-militarism and towards serving and healing our communities at home, as well as promoting peace and justice globally,” CodePink said in a letter to Whitmer at the time.
“Transforming Michigan into a hub for weapons manufacturing sends a contradictory message to our values and our aspirations for a more peaceful and just society. Michigan takes pride in building goods that improve people’s lives everywhere, not shatter them.
“The 400 acres of land near Industrial Drive in Grayling Township could be repurposed for projects that provide tangible benefits to the people of Michigan,” the letter continued. “We have an opportunity to lead by example, demonstrating that our state values human life and environmental stewardship over militarization.”
At 148,000 acres, Camp Grayling is the largest National Guard training center in the United States. In April 2023, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources rejected a proposal to expand the base by adding 162,000 acres of state forest land, following months of opposition from locals, including the conservation group Anglers of the Au Sable.
In 2020, the Michigan National Guard established the National All-Domain Warfighting Center (NADWC), which encompasses Camp Grayling, the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, the Selfridge Air National Guard Base, and the Battle Creek Air National Guard Base.
The goal of the NADWC is to make the National Guard centers more attractive for private contractors and the Department of Defense to test new weapons technologies.
“Ever since we unveiled NADWC, my phone has been ringing off the hook with private industry trying to get into this space,” Lt. Col. James Crowley, the former commander of Camp Grayling, said in an interview with DBusiness Magazine in July 2022. “And the advantage is that we have a lot of availability and a lot of land for folks to come out here and play.
“The interest I have as the commander here at Grayling is to try to create an environment where you always have the latest technologies around those war-fighting functions when they’re ready,” Lt. Col. Scott Meyers, Crowley’s successor, said.
Foreign military units train at Camp Grayling during Northern Strike exercises, which are held bi-annually in January and August.
The exercises in August host thousands of soldiers and encompass the land allotted to Camp Grayling and the airspace allotted to the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center.
The exercises allow military units from multiple countries to train together at the same time and have included Taiwanese military forces preparing for war against China, as reported by the Wall Street Journal in February 2023.
The plan to build a Saab munitions facility is an unsurprising development given Camp Grayling’s attractiveness to private weapons companies.
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