The Midwest has the manufacturing base, research institutions, and testing infrastructure to lead the next era of America’s defense industrial capacity — from air and sea to land and munitions. The path forward is as much about industry and people as technology: bigger workforces, more tooling, more capacity, and faster acquisition timelines are just as critical as new platforms.
Autonomy is reshaping every domain, and the region is positioning itself as the focal point for developing, testing, and scaling unmanned systems in the air, on the water, and on the ground
The Midwest is making its case as America’s defense industrial heartland. Across air, sea, land, and munitions, speakers argued the region has the manufacturing base, research institutions, and testing infrastructure to lead the next era of U.S. defense capacity — but only if it gets more workforce, tooling, and faster acquisition timelines, not just new platforms.
2. Autonomy is the connective thread across every domain. From drone test beds and uncrewed maritime vessels designed “from the ground up” to drone-saturated battlefields in Ukraine, the summit’s throughline was that unmanned systems are reshaping how the U.S. builds and fights — and the Midwest wants to be where that gets developed, tested, and scaled.
3. Washington is paying attention. As the Pentagon’s Michael Cadenazzi told the crowd, the U.S. defense industrial base is “decades behind” after post-Cold War “just-in-time” assumptions, and Sagamore’s own defense lead is leaving to work on shipbuilding policy full-time in D.C. — signs the region’s pitch is landing with actual policymakers, not just industry insiders.
