General Motors $GM is in talks with Lockheed Martin $LMT about manufacturing parts for the defense contractor's weapons systems, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The automaker's GM Defense subsidiary is seeking to expand beyond infantry vehicles as the Pentagon pushes to replenish munitions supplies
Bloomberg / Getty Images
General Motors $GM is in talks with Lockheed Martin $LMT about manufacturing parts for the defense contractor's weapons systems, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Lockheed's munitions output could get a lift from GM-made commodity components under the terms being negotiated. The two companies are still working through which specific parts GM could make, and an announcement could come as soon as Tuesday.
The talks have been under way since early this year. GM CEO Mary Barra has met with Trump administration officials to discuss a larger military role for the automaker, which has been looking to grow its GM Defense subsidiary and tap new revenue streams. Infantry vehicle contracts were the primary focus when GM Defense first came to life roughly ten years ago.
Conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have drawn down reserves of missiles and other essential weaponry, prompting the Pentagon and Trump administration to push defense contractors to ramp up output. Bringing in manufacturers outside the traditional defense industry, GM among them, has emerged as a strategy to support contractors unable to satisfy the surge in demand for interceptors and strike weapons.
Commitments to expand output of air-defense interceptors and other munitions have run into supplier constraints at Lockheed Martin, the maker of F-35 fighters, Thaad missiles, and Black Hawk helicopters.
The potential deal would be the latest move into defense by a major automaker. Automotive production has slumped well below historical norms around the world, leaving plants with significant unused capacity. Talks about producing parts for Israel's Iron Dome at one of its German plants have been reported at Volkswagen, while Mercedes-Benz's top executive has publicly floated the possibility of the company entering the European defense market. Vehicles, not weapons, are at the heart of separate government conversations that Ford $F CEO Jim Farley has acknowledged his company is having with U.S. officials.
What the automotive supply chain actually produces does not align closely with the weapons parts most urgently needed, and sophisticated munitions manufacturing presents technical demands that go well beyond what commercial carmaking requires. Apprehension about investor reaction, as well as the financial and regulatory burdens of weapons contracts, has kept some in the auto industry cautious about entering the defense space.
GM has been navigating a broader business reshaping. The automaker raised its full-year 2026 profit forecast in April after a Supreme Court ruling reduced its expected tariff costs, and has also been cutting salaried positions in its information technology operations as part of a workforce restructuring.
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