US factory towns revive as defence tech makers arrive

Drawn by local talent, cheap labour and state cash incentives, start-ups building the weapons of the future are revitalising manufacturing in once-vibrant industrial towns, writes Sheera Frenkel from Auburn Hills, Michigan

- Sheera Frenkel

The factory in Auburn Hills, Michigan, had stood vacant for months, surrounded by unoccupied warehouses that had once been used by car companies in the heartland of America's auto industry.

Last year, a startup called Swarm Defense Technologies moved into an 8,000-square-foot section of the building to begin making drones for defence. By this summer, demand for its drones had grown so rapidly that the company took over the entire 14,000-square-foot factory.

Today, 47 Swarm employees work in the cavernous space pumping out thousands of drones each month for the US military and other clients. The drones, a little over 10 inches long and less than two pounds, can be used to test anti-drone systems and to simulate attacks. That has made Swarm's factory a hive of activity in an area where dozens of "For lease" signs are visible.

"There was a huge demand for drones like ours to provide targets for anti-drone systems or to train drones on," said Kyle Dorosz, 33, a co-founder of Swarm. He added that "everything about making drones in this place feels right," since it was "in the DNA of this place."

Swarm is one of hundreds of defence technology companies that are reviving manufacturing in once-vibrant industrial cities across the Midwest and Northeast. Drawn by local talent, cheap labour and state cash incentives, these companies are building the weapons of the future in old factories or are constructing state-of-the-art sites in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Delaware.

In January, Anduril, an artificial-intelligence-backed weapons manufacturer, announced that it was building a $1 billion factory in Ohio to make drones and other AI-enabled weapons. It has since said it also plans to open factories in Rhode Island and Mississippi.

'AMERICA WAKING UP'