MDX, a non-profit subsidiary of Sagamore and its Midwest Defense portfolio, is supporting a Midwest-wide, “whole-of-ecosystem” initiative to accelerate strategic onshoring and reindustrialization (Project SOAR) through the U.S. industrial heartland. Project SOAR is designed to close the most critical industrial base gaps by aligning local and state economic development capacity, private and philanthropic capital, the Midwest industrial base, defense and industrial support organizations, and regional education and workforce institutions into a single coordinated operating model that can scale across the Midwest.
Project SOAR delivers a scalable, Midwest‑led approach to reindustrialization by closing defense supply‑chain gaps through coordinated industry, capital, and workforce action. By leveraging the region’s historic manufacturing and technical expertise and connecting with a new generation of Heartland innovators, we’re helping to transform industrial capacity into defense-ready capabilities.
Identify and prioritize urgent supply chain and industrial shortfalls that are critical for U.S. national security
Align efforts with the Midwest industrial base, along with key academic, workforce, defense, and manufacturing support organizations
Provide funding and hands-on support close to manufacturers while maintaining regional visiblity
This interactive event, hosted by Sagamore’s Midwest Defense Accelerator, brought together manufacturers, defense leaders, innovators, and workforce partners to explore how the Midwest can transition into autonomous and maritime production—and build the ecosystem to scale.
The Midwest has the people and capacities to build things like nowhere else in America.
Click the map to exapnd
The Challenge: As demonstrated in Ukraine and other combat zones, we are in the midst of a paradigm shift in the art and tools of warfare, with air, land, and maritime drones becoming essential to modern battlefield operations.
The Solution: The Midwest is uniquely positioned to become the nation’s integrated hub for robotic autonomous systems — the Autonomous Heartland. MDX’s Project SOAR targets dual-use drone and maritime production at the center of a paradigm shift in modern warfare. The naval and maritime fleets of the future must be natively autonomous, requiring a fundamental rethinking of platform design, production strategy, and industrial base alignment. The Great Lakes shipyards and Midwest industrial base are uniquely positioned to lead this transformation, but this will require close coordination and backing from federal, state, philanthropic, and private sector leaders.
To build the Autonomous Heartland and meet the defense needs of the future, MDX is proposing the strategic placement of several Maritime Prosperity Zones around the Great Lakes.
The path to an Autonomous Heartland should start with Maritime Prosperity Zones: a network of hubs around the Great Lakes, each anchoring shipyard assets, an autonomous innovation center, and a testing corridor for dual-use autonomous systems. Together, these Zones form an interconnected, multimodal R&D and production ecosystem — linking the FAA-designated Indiana Drone Corridor (Crane to the NWI shoreline), Lake Erie to AFRL, Lake Superior to the Northern Plains UAS Test Site, and Lake Michigan to Camp Grayling/GVTC.
The investment case is clear. U.S government commitment — paired with hundreds of millions in philanthropic and state funding and billions in private capital — would build the autonomous fleet America needs to defend itself and project power for decades to come.