So, I was reading about a Japanese fighter built by Mitsubishi called the F-2 (based somewhat on the F-16). Mitsubishi, though once the producer of the famed A6M Zero fighter during World War II, is nowadays known more for it’s production of automobiles than fighter jets. Kawasaki, another company which had a hand in the development of the fighter, is better known for it’s motorcycles.
So, it occured to me to wonder about other companies which are known primarily for their civilian market offerings that also produce sophisticated military equipment. Let’s not count auto companies that were converted to producing warplanes out of necessitiy during wartime, such as General Motors (who produced Grumman Wildcat fighters and Avenger bombers for the Navy), unless they also produced and/or developed military equipment during peacetime.
Off the top of my head, I can also think of SAAB (producers of fine automobiles and advanced jet fighters for the Swedish Air Force). Any others?
Do they build stuff other than airplanes? I’m not sure if I’d count aviation companies, since it seems like all the major airliner producers also produce military jets (though it’s debatable how famous they are for one market versus the other).
Actually, does McDonald Douglass still make airliners, or has Boeing effectively taken over that market in the US?
Despite what the commericals obviously imply, there is no current connection between Saab jest and Saab cars. Saab cars aren’t even Saabs anymore ni many cases. They’re owned by GM and their new “Aero” sport coupe or whatever is actually a Subaru WRX.
KBR does civilian and military construction.
BBN does a hell of lot with networks and is a significant defnese contractor, mind you that may have split up divisions now
IBM picks up a fair few defense contracts, I am guessing most large IT companies will happily do defense work involving sophisticated hi tech widgets and gizmos
General Electric makes your dishwasher but also makes the big-ass 30mm gatling gun under the nose of the A10 Avenger (GAU-8 Avenger - Wikipedia), and aircraft engines (http://www.geae.com/)
I used to work for Westinghouse before they sold off their defense division. There was something weird about working for a company that made airborne radar and kitchen toasters (among other things). The Westinghouse Savannah River site is still very much involved in nuclear weapons.
I was going to mention GE but others beat me to it.
Rolls Royce makes aircraft engines for fighter jets.
Daewoo Shipbuilding Enterprise and Hyundai Heavy Industries cooperated on the KDX-2 destroyer for South Korea, among other projects. Bell Helicopters make the ubiquitious UH-1 “Huey” (military) and JetRanger (civilian) – not a strict interpretation of the OP since they’re very similar product lines.
Honeywell makes avionics systems for military and aerospace markets, and also makes thermostats and automotive controls.
United Technologies is a conglomerate that includes military-aerospace players like Sikorsky Helicopter, Pratt&Whitney, and Hamilton Sundstrand as well as familiar commercial names like Carrier and Otis.
There are a lot of companies that do this. A smaller, and in my opinion, more useful list would be to list only those who provide manufacturing to governments (as opposed to services, because, even I, working in a private law firm can do that). Anyway, here are some to add to your list:
Saab
Siemens
General Dynamics
Lockheed Martin
That’s all I can think of on the top of my head as I type this quickly. A lot of the ones I have in mind are in IT, but, like I said, those are mainly services.
Nitpick: Mitsubishi was split into several independent companies after WWII. Mitsubishi Motors does not make military jets.
But Mitsubishi Heavy industries, the maker of the F-2, does make civilian equipment (ships, construction equipment, etc). Mitsubishi Electric is also involved wiht the F-2 and other military projects, and it’s the same company that makes consumer electronics.
But I thought that more important was that they’re both a major civilian contractor (Airbus) and a military one (being a contractor for Boeing for the Harrier). And until 9/11 forced them out of business (or made them smell the coffee) they made their own civilian planes, too.
Wow, Honeywell actually makes stuff? I thought they were just an importing company. I’ve got an old Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic sitting in a box at home somewhere (I have yet to get it fixed up so it will work, my own shooting camera being an Asashi Pentax Spotmatic bought in Japan by a friend of my dad’s in 1970). I think my mom also has a Honeywell sewing machine lying around somewhere, and the computer lab in the library contains a wide variety of old stuff they no longer know the uses for, including a Honeywell slide copier (basically a specially modified Pentax camera with a bellows lens, slide holder, and a vertical frame that holds it all together). Neat.
<Johnny Carson>I did not know that</JC>
So, is the BMW that makes automobiles in Germany today the same BMW that made engines for fighter planes in WWII? Or is that similarly just a namesake in a related industry?
Anyhow, a random thought, suddenly Small Soldiers, which featured a large corporation that produced both military weapons systems and children’s toys, seems a bit less silly.
