No More Cars? General Motors and Ford Plan to Produce Missiles 0 24

American automotive giants General Motors and Ford intend to launch weapons production at their facilities, including the Patriot missile system and Tomahawk missiles. This was announced by U.S. President Donald Trump during a conversation with journalists at the White House.

"Defense sector customers are currently in negotiations with General Motors, they are negotiating with Ford. And I know that General Motors is eagerly anticipating the launch of weapons production. They have some factories that they plan to repurpose. And they are going to produce weapons, including the Patriot, including the Tomahawk, and many other things. Weapons production is a big economic boost. So some automakers, if they have access to production facilities, are negotiating to produce missiles, particularly for the Patriot missile system. We have a lot of them, and we want to ensure that we always have a lot of them."

Earlier, in April, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Pentagon is reaching out to automakers in an effort to stimulate weapons production, "as was done during World War II."

Possible Depletion of U.S. Weapons Stockpiles Due to War in Iran

For its part, The New York Times reported that due to the war in Iran, the stockpiles of many types of essential U.S. weapons, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, missiles for the Patriot missile system, as well as ground-based Precision Strike missiles and ATACMS, are on the brink of depletion.

"If Trump orders military commanders to carry out additional strikes aimed at destroying or weakening Iranian capabilities, the U.S. military will be forced to expend even more stockpiles of essential munitions," journalists speculated in May. "Such actions will further deplete U.S. stockpiles at a time when the Pentagon and major weapons manufacturers are already struggling to find production capacity to replenish U.S. stockpiles."

Concerns about the depletion of American weapons stockpiles are also shared by Washington's European allies, according to the publication. These allies have ordered billions of dollars worth of munitions from the U.S. for Ukraine and are now worried that they will not be delivered, as they will be needed by the U.S. armed forces to replenish their own stockpiles, the authors explained, as reported by Deutsche Welle.