The Pentagon is looking back to Detroit to help solve one of its most urgent modern problems: How to build the next generation of military vehicles, unmanned systems and battlefield technology faster, at scale and with more of the commercial know-how that has long defined the auto industry.
That renewed courtship of Detroit-area automakers will be one of the themes running through the 18th annual Ground Vehicle Systems Engineering & Technology Symposium, or GVSETS, scheduled for Aug. 11-13 at the Vibe Credit Union Showplace in Novi.
Eric Patton, co-chair of the 2026 event and founder of Ares Technology, said the Defense Department and the Army are trying to rebuild and modernize relationships with companies capable of producing complex systems quickly — a need sharpened by the possibility of future conflict against major military powers.
“We’re looking at facing a near-peer adversary like we haven’t in the past,” Patton said. “We’re going to have to shift the way that we’ve been fighting. And a key component of that is the ability to build assets at scale akin to the way that we ramped up through the arsenal of democracy in World War II.”
The comparison is deliberate. During World War II, Detroit’s automakers famously converted assembly lines to produce tanks, aircraft and other military equipment. Today’s challenge is different, Patton said, because the industrial base has been reshaped by globalization, specialized supply chains and decades of defense acquisition practices that often moved more slowly than commercial markets.
Still, the Army’s ground vehicle enterprise has a major advantage in Michigan: proximity. The U.S. Army DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center is headquartered at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren, putting Army engineers, program leaders and industry partners close to the automakers and suppliers that dominate the region’s manufacturing ecosystem.
“Being located here in Detroit enables them to collaborate really closely with the automakers,” Patton said. “We’re right in the heart of things.”
Much of that collaboration is focused on vehicles, the core of GVSETS’ mission. Patton pointed to General Motors Defense’s Infantry Squad Vehicle, adapted from the Chevrolet Colorado platform, as an example of the Army’s growing interest in adapting commercial platforms for military use. He said Ford is also engaged in efforts to assess how truck platforms and automotive subsystems could support military applications.
That approach aligns with one of the biggest buzzwords around this year’s event: COTS, or commercial off-the-shelf technology. Instead of waiting years for contractors to design products to highly specific government requirements, the Army is increasingly looking for mature commercial products it can test quickly, buy in small quantities and scale if they work.
“They want COTS product,” Patton said. “It might be a relatively new thing, but it’s something that the contractor has developed on their own and brings as a ready-to-go product that the Army will test, whether that’s a truck or a drone or a camera system.”
The shift also changes who takes on early development risk. Patton said the government is encouraging contractors — from startups to prime defense companies to automakers — to bring products far enough along that soldiers can experiment with them, provide feedback and help determine whether they should move into broader production.
GVSETS 2026 is being programmed around that faster model. Patton said panels will focus on Army experimentation units, innovation pipelines, commercial technology and the question many companies are asking: How to get products into soldiers’ hands, collect meaningful feedback and transition successful experiments into production contracts.
For the first time, GVSETS will also feature a venture-capital-focused panel. Patton said the defense sector has watched venture-backed companies develop products with private capital and then offer them to the government, a model that can move faster than traditional procurement but also brings new risks for entrepreneurs and established companies alike.
The panel is expected to include perspectives from large defense-focused venture efforts, prime contractor venture arms, local Michigan investors and venture-backed startups. Patton said Booz Allen Hamilton and Michigan Capital Networks are among the organizations being brought into the conversation.
Michigan’s appeal goes beyond the automakers themselves. Patton said the state has a deep supplier base feeding vehicle, missile, drone and other defense programs, along with a manufacturing culture built around scale, engineering and rapid adaptation. He also cited the state’s Office of Defense and Aerospace Innovation as part of a broader effort to diversify Michigan’s defense role beyond vehicles while still supporting its ground-systems strengths.
“At the end of the day, it’s because Michigan knows how to make products,” Patton said. “We know how to innovate quickly and we know how to adapt to what the country needs.”
The event itself is growing. Patton said GVSETS drew just over 2,700 attendees last year and is expected to draw about 3,000 in 2026. The show floor is also expanding, with about 245 booths planned and exhibit sales already outpacing last year’s total several weeks before the event.
Attendees can also expect new technology on display. In addition to traditional senior-leader panels and technical sessions, Patton said companies will demonstrate autonomous platforms during breaks and receptions near the exhibit hall, giving participants a closer look at unmanned and robotic systems.
Those demonstrations reflect how quickly battlefield technology is changing. Patton said lessons from Ukraine have accelerated interest in unmanned systems, counter-drone technology, autonomy, advanced sensing and new ways to strengthen the industrial base.
The economics of modern warfare, he said, can be brutal: relatively inexpensive drones can threaten multimillion-dollar armored vehicles, forcing the military and industry to rethink how equipment is built, protected and replaced.
Patton sees those changes from both sides of the industry. His company, Aries Technology, develops software-defined subsystems for military vehicles, including drive-by-wire interfaces, predictive maintenance and autonomy software, human-machine interface products, a holographic command-and-control display and a digital periscope with augmented-reality capability.
That experience, Patton said, helps shape how GVSETS addresses the practical questions facing small businesses and innovators trying to work with the Army: how to enter experimentation programs, how to absorb feedback, how to protect their business interests and how to move from a promising demonstration to real sales.
That mix of technical depth and decision-maker access is one reason GVSETS has remained a durable event for nearly two decades, Patton said. The symposium brings together Army scientists and engineers, senior leaders, industry executives, suppliers, startups and academics who do not always gather in the same room.
“The focus of the event is how do we enable the future of war fighting through technology?” Patton said.
For Detroit and Michigan, that question increasingly runs through familiar territory: commercial platforms, advanced manufacturing, engineering talent and an auto industry the Pentagon believes could again help the country move faster when speed and scale matter most.
