Throughout the course of its long and illustrious history, Ford has produced a wide range of equipment for the U.S. military – everything from cars and trucks to ambulances, airplane engines, tanks, and even the B-24 Liberator, which it manufactured at the company’s Willow Run Plant during World War II at a time when vehicle production was essentially on pause. These days, Ford supplies parts for government vehicles like the new USPS Next-Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV), which is facing an uncertain future, but it seems as if the Trump administration wants it to do bit more in that regard.
According to Defense One, Stephen Feinberg – CEO of Cerberus Capital Management and a current nominee of President Donald Trump for the position of Deputy Secretary of Defense – recently stated that U.S.-based automakers should get the chance to build weapons, in addition to traditional contractors. “I think we need to bring in new companies,” Feinberg said during his confirmation hearing.
“I would go to big manufacturing companies, give them a shot on new problems if we think their capabilities can meet it…to give them a shot without a wide-scale competition with all our big defense companies, which, by the way, are too consolidated,” Feinberg said. “They are at a disadvantage competing with the big defense companies…We’ve got to make it easier for them. Maybe not the most competitive answer on the surface, but will lead to much more [competition] in the future.” Feinberg believes that companies like Ford and General Motors, specifically, are more adept at scaling and operations than traditional defense suppliers. though there are some obstacles that must be overcome first.
“Our supply chain is definitely weak. Our workforce needs to be improved. But a big piece of improving our supply chain is working more closely with our private sector,” he added. “We have companies that can get it where our needs are, where our shortages are. And we need to work more closely with them; we need people inside of government that understand issues, such as shareholder pressures.”
Comments
LOL. Jim and Bill could make them supercharged!
Sure, and is he asking steel manufacturers to also package food? The stupidity of this administration never ceases to befuddle.
Hey if in a few months time they were putting out thousands of respirators during COVID. The problem with weapons manufactures is you have to show a bunch of credible evidence that you can build the stuff before they consider even letting you bid. So companies that have a past record get priority and many companies that could don’t even try because the investment to get a chance at a bid is too high. The result is not so much competition and some crazy pricing. You think a civilian pickup is expensive, check out what those,no creature comfort, military vehicles cost.
King Donald the Orange thinks steel manufacturers could provide steel cut oats for MREs. Bazooka Bubble Gum could supply rocket launchers. Johnny Rockets restaurants supplying jet propulsion. BTW, who’s picking up the unemployment benefits for all these fired workers? Elon?
Spoken like a true leftist liberal that doesn’t know the meaning of thinking outside the box to solve problems. Or maybe you just skipped history in school. The car companies were responsible for a little thing called the Arsenal of Democracy in WWII and produced weaponry at an astounding rate. I guess you don’t have faith in American Workers or Manufacturing. That kind of head in the sand thinking is why President Trump won in a landslide.
Sure, the company that has more recalls than anybody. Yes let them make weapons.
They can’t even update BlueCruise in 4 years.
At basic, my M16 was made by GM. It constantly jammed.
Built by a transgender, non-binary they were forced to hire because of leftist DEI mandates.
But didn’t the DEI (or DUI) Secretary of Defense say he was going to cut the defense budget?
Just think the world’s biggest list of recalls ……… recalling weapons lololololol
Would they be engineered in Germany too…..
Americans voted for chaos. Congratulations.
And the GOPER show goes on and on on.