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Senator Warns Pete Hegseth U.S. Is “Losing Defense Race with China” Right Here In Michigan

by in Daily Edition | May 31, 2025 2 min read

Pete Hegseth

Pete Hegseth (DoD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Alexander Kubitza) U.S. Secretary of Defense, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In an effort to bolster defense manufacturing in Michigan, U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is introducing the Future of Defense Manufacturing Act. 

According to a statement, “The bill will require the Department of Defense to ban Chinese-made 3D printers,” and use American supply chains and technology “made right here in Michigan, not Beijing.” 

Slotkin reported: “We are currently losing the defense race with China in new defense manufacturing. Ten years ago, America was the undisputed leader in 3D printing. China controlled less than 10 percent of the world’s 3D printer sales and shipments. Five years ago, China controlled 70 percent. Today, they control 90 percent. If China is controlling 3D printers, that means they are controlling the technology, infrastructure, data and jobs that 3D printing is helping create.”

Slotkin spoke about her defense plan at the 2025 Mackinac Policy Conference on Thursday with Erik Smith, President and CEO of Saab Inc. and Colonel (Ret.) John Gutierrez, executive director of the Office of Defense and Aerospace Innovation, Michigan Economic Development Corporation. 

[In April, Saab broke ground on its tenth U.S. facility, a $75 million munitions plant in Grayling, Michigan.]

Governor Gretchen Whitmer (who also spoke at the Mackinac Policy Conference, see below) opened the Office of Defense and Aerospace Innovation and named Col. Gutierrez as its executive director in April 2024.

Whitmer reported: “The defense industry contributes $30 billion in economic activity for the state of Michigan, supporting more than 116,000 jobs and representing nearly 4,000 Michigan businesses serving the defense, defense aerospace, and homeland security industries.”