Trump Touts New $10 Billion Investments for Defense Industry in Pennsylvania

CARLISLE, Pa.—President Donald Trump hosted a roundtable discussion at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit held at the U.S. Army War College on July 15, leading talks on how best to strengthen the nation’s defenses.

“The biggest names in business are all spending money in America, and they’re all spending money in Pennsylvania,” Trump said.

Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), who organized the two-day summit, used the opportunity to highlight nearly $10 billion in recent investments in arms and technology industry vendors from across Pennsylvania. The investments are expected to support more than 4,000 jobs in the commonwealth.

The president joined in praising Pennsylvania’s contributions to America’s arsenals.

“Pennsylvania workers will build the ships, submarines, trucks, weapons, and industries that will ensure America remains the strongest and most powerful nation in the history of the world,” Trump said.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler were among the Cabinet members in attendance.

More than 600 business executives from around 500 organizations were also in attendance, according to McCormick’s staff. Those executives include JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, Blackstone Chief Operating Officer Jon Gray, and Lockheed Martin’s president and CEO Jim Taiclet.

Among the recent deals was a 10-year partnership, valued at $2.5 billion, between Rhoads Industries and General Dynamics Electric Boat to support submarine construction at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

Another recent $2.3 billion deal will allow the Philadelphia-headquartered ammunition manufacturer Day & Zimmermann to modernize and manage operations at the Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada. The facility is the largest ammunition storage facility operated by the U.S. military’s Joint Munitions Command.

The Trump administration has emphasized efforts to boost the U.S. arms industry. Earlier this year, Hegseth headlined the “Arsenal of Freedom” tour, in which he visited production lines assembling new military equipment.

“We need these companies not just adding an extra shift to the factory, but investing in another plant and another plant and another manufacturing line, which is what’s happening here in Pennsylvania and all around the country,” Hegseth said during the roundtable discussion on July 15.

The Trump administration’s efforts to promote domestic production come as recent fighting in Ukraine and across the Middle East has placed U.S. weapons in high demand.

That high global demand has tested current stockpiles.

In May, Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said plans to sell about $14 billion in new weapons to Taiwan had been delayed as U.S. military planners evaluated the demands of continued armed conflict with Iran.

As he announced plans last week to grant Ukraine a license to produce Patriot air defense systems, Trump acknowledged that delivery timelines for foreign arms sales have grown lengthy.

Arms Industry Networking

The inaugural Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit followed a similar model to one McCormick laid out a year earlier, focused on Pennsylvania’s role in the U.S. energy industry.

In addition to panel discussions featuring policymakers and industry leaders, this year’s summit also served as a venue for vendors to network. Event organizers helped facilitate introductions on the first day of the summit using a speed-dating format.

Bryan Grubert, the chief growth officer for the aerospace company Attalon, told The Epoch Times that the networking format has helped his company identify more machine shops and material sources his company could call upon to provide the materials and machining they might need to fill product orders.

Attalon recently announced plans to open a new 80,000-square-foot facility in Pennsylvania to produce coatings for a variety of precision-guided weapons.

“Sometimes there was overlap, sometimes there wasn’t, but you never know. It’s always good to know what companies are doing,” Grubert said.

Not only did the speed-dating format raise the potential for new partnerships between businesses in attendance, but it also raised the potential that those deals would support jobs for McCormick’s constituents.

Robert Dyess, the senior vice president of business development for Day & Zimmermann, told The Epoch Times that one of his most memorable connections during the networking segment of the summit was with another local vendor.

“They’re in Pennsylvania. We’re in Pennsylvania. That’s good,” Dyess said. “It may or may not be that person that we do business with, but now I don’t have to hunt for him. So to me, that was like the best surprise that happened yesterday, amongst the six or seven meetings that we had.”

McCormick’s staff reported the summit offered a venue for more than 1,500 meetings between the various businesses, investors, workforce suppliers, and potential end users in attendance.