Saab, Inc to build new munitions factory in Michigan

A graphic of the AT4 anti-armour weapon, which Saab, Inc plans to build at a planned factory in Michigan. (Saab Bofors Dynamics)

Saab, Inc, the US subsidiary of the Swedish defence firm, is building a new munitions facility in Grayling, Michigan, the company announced in a 24 September statement. Groundbreaking is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2024, with initial manufacturing to start in early 2026, the statement said.

The new facility will be used for final assembly and integration of shoulder-fired munitions and precision fire systems, according to Saab, Inc. This includes AT4 shoulder-fired weapons and the Saab portion of the Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) system, Erik Smith, president and CEO for Saab, Inc, told Janes in a 27 September interview. (Saab is partnered with Boeing for the programme.)

The decision to build the munitions factory was driven by “the Pentagon's desire to increase the US national defence industrial capacity in this area”, he said. “Given the demand for our portfolio around the world and the size of the US customer base within that portfolio, it made sense for us to expand capacity in the [US] domestic market,” Smith explained.

“As a company, we're in a situation where we probably have four times the demand to capacity that we have in the organisation,” he said. Accordingly, Saab is looking at how it can best meet that demand. Given the size and importance of the US customer in our portfolio, it makes sense to build these weapons in the US, Smith said.

Michigan facility