Grayling residents got their first detailed look at a weapons factory planned near town within the next few years.
The Swedish Defense company Saab announced the $75 million plant earlier this year and has held four total meetings with stakeholders in the area.
Originally, officials said the plant would break ground at the end of this year. But the company said it still needs to purchase the 388 acres from the township. Officials now predict the facility will begin construction in 2025.
The plan will eventually come before the Grayling Township Board and Planning Commission for votes of approval in the next few months.
The area is home to the Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center, the largest National Guard training facility in the United States, spanning 147,000 acres of training land throughout Crawford County and 113 square miles of restricted air space.
What’s being built?
The new facility will be used for final assembly on Saab’s AT4 product line. They’re shoulder mounted weapons with softball-sized rounds designed to break through heavily-armored objects.
An advertisement on Saab’s website says the weapons are “for any experience level.”
“A dismounted soldier simply aims, fires and destroys the target before discarding the empty tube.”
More than one million AT4s have been produced and are used by over 15 countries, according to Saab’s website.
Saab Inc. CEO Erik Smith says the guns will be tested at Camp Grayling, the nearby National Guard training facility.
“We’ll test some number of systems for every production lot that comes out,” Smith said. “What that number is will be specified by the army, but it's a relatively small number — and that's on the AT4 side. That is the only testing that's going to be done on base.”
Saab will also use the plant to build components of its Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB), but the rounds themselves will not be fired and tested in Grayling.
The GLSDB is a missile developed in partnership with Boeing and is highly accurate over long distances, according to Saab’s website.
“We are envisioning building the Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb system here, but it's the structural and mechanical elements of that system,” Smith said.
How many jobs?
The company has been touting the creation of around 70 jobs in engineering, assembly, management and more.
Director of Michigan Works! Northeast Consortium Jessica Topp attended the open house to discuss partnering with Saab to create pipelines for northern Michigan workers to fill the open positions.
“When people think of northern Michigan, they might think that we are working class. We do have those jobs available here, and people who work in those jobs and do it wonderfully, but we also have people to fill those higher level engineering and executive-level positions that they are looking for as well,” she said.
The economic benefits got nods from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) earlier this year.
“We will continue pursuing our comprehensive economic development strategy to secure projects, invest in people, and uplift places across Michigan," Whitmer said in a statement. "With Saab’s decision to ‘Make It in Michigan,’ we are building on our economic momentum and strong reputation as a leader in advanced manufacturing."
The facility in Grayling will be Saab's 10th in the United States. Others include advanced manufacturing within aerospace in West Lafayette, Indiana; radar and sensor systems in Syracuse, New York; training and simulation in Orlando, Florida; autonomous and undersea systems in Cranston, Rhode Island and Quincy, Massachusetts; and a new operationally focused incubator in San Diego, California.
Saab has customers in more than 100 countries and 22,000 employees in over 30 countries.
Environment and other concerns
The project comes as residents deal with PFAS contamination that was traced back to Camp Grayling in the fall of 2016. PFAS, an acronym for polyfluoroalkyl substances, move through watersheds without breaking down and are linked to an array of health problems, including cancer.
According to Saab’s website, some components delivered to the facility for use in the products do contain PFAS substances.
The website reads: “These substances are used to treat the products so they can endure extremely high temperatures. No surface treatments are conducted at the facility, and components containing PFAS will not come into contact with water or any other solvents. Therefore, there is no risk of PFAS leaking into the environment.”
Saab officials said they will build and operate the facility with “European standards” for sustainability and environmental protection. According to the project description, much of the land will remain forested and the company promised transparency on how it deals with hazardous materials like glues and epoxies.
Some residents, like Barbara Selesky and Cathy Lester came to express more general concerns with a growing military presence in the area.
“We’re going to be having war machines in town and Saab is delighted that they’re going to build a nice factory for us in Grayling,” Selesky said.
“I don't totally approve of us building up our military,” Lester said. “We've got the biggest military in the world.”
