Combat vehicle company to invest $32M, hire 450 workers in Michigan
Posted By: Detroit News on September 9, 2025. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
American Rheinmetall plans to hire additional 450 workers in Michigan as part of a nearly $32 million investment in the defense company’s Metro Detroit headquarters, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Tuesday.
American Rheinmetall is a subsidiary of German-based Rheinmetall AG. The company makes combat vehicles and parts and is competing for U.S. Department of Defense contracts to make new vehicles slated to replace the U.S. Army’s M-2 Bradley.
“This new investment in Michigan represents a significant step forward in expanding our advanced engineering and manufacturing capabilities across our facilities, while creating high-quality jobs for Michiganders,” American Rheinmetall CEO Matt Warnick said in a statement.
The Michigan project includes construction of a new headquarters in Auburn Hills to “support new U.S. Department of Defense contracts,” according to a release from the governor’s office. The new headquarters will consolidate locations from the nearby suburbs of Sterling Heights and Troy and focus on engineering, prototyping and technical work.
In March 2023, the company opened an engineering and technology center in Sterling Heights that employed about 100 people at the time.
“Their decision to locate here not only brings advanced technology and high-quality jobs to our City, but also reinforces Auburn Hills’ standing as a premier destination for global innovation and manufacturing,” Mayor Brian Marzolf said in a statement.
American Rheinmetall also plans to ramp up production at the company’s Plymouth, Lapeer and Lansing sites as part of the project. Both skilled and unskilled laborers will be needed.
Calls and emails to a Whitmer spokesperson, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and Rheinmetall requesting information about tax incentives offered to the company for the project were not immediately returned Tuesday.
The investment follows a trade mission by Whitmer to Rheinmetall AG’s providing grounds in Germany. In a statement, Whitmer touted the deal as a way to “build on the state’s leadership in the defense industry.”
In July, she courted executives at an industrial summit in Detroit in hopes of bringing more manufacturing to the state, including in the defense sector.
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