# Companies that build both military and civilian equipment? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 13, 2006, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-that-build-both-military-and-civilian-equipment/372506 "2006-09-13T06:37:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lk1932](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/aeb1de/32.png) [@lk1932](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lk1932)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2006, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-that-build-both-military-and-civilian-equipment/372506/21 "2006-09-14T00:16:46Z")
Oshkosh Truck of Oshkosh, Wisconsin builds heavy duty trucks for the military and civilian use. Most counties in the state have Oshkosh trucks for all heavy duty road work, Hauling gravel, plowing snow, any what ever else heavy duty trucks are used for. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2006, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-that-build-both-military-and-civilian-equipment/372506/22 "2006-09-14T00:40:06Z")
Ames True Temper is its current name as a civilian shovel maker but it started in pre-Colonial times and became the Oliver Ames Shovel Co., They started making contraband shovels and muskets to fight the British in the 1700’s. The colonies were not supposed to produce finished products then, only to supply the mother country. They became the Ames Shovel Co., and during WWII the Ames Tool and Trenching Co. made 11,000,000 entrenching shovels for the U.S. military. Thase are the spedes with folding handles that can fit in a back rack and are used to dig foxholes, etc. They are the longest continuing manufacturing operation in (I think they said the World, but might have been in) the U.S. All this from the History Channel right now (8:30 p.m. e.d.t. -to be re-run later tonight) during a break from this Board. Can you dig it? ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2006, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-that-build-both-military-and-civilian-equipment/372506/23 "2006-09-14T02:30:46Z")
[QUOTE=bughunter] Oh, and don’t forget that General Electric produces both Nuclear Weapons components, and the Late Show with David Letterman! [/QUOTE] \GE owns NBC (last I checked.) Late Night with David Letterman was on NBC, but now Dave is on CBS. CBS was owned by Westinghouse, but it’s now owned by Viacom.\ ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2006, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-that-build-both-military-and-civilian-equipment/372506/24 "2006-09-14T04:35:24Z")
CAE is an aerospace engineering firm with both civilian and defence departments. I had an interview at a pharmaceutical company whose main product is barium solutions for medical imagery (e.g. X-ray contrast media) but who also have developed products for detox/treatment in biowarfare situations. Pretty interesting, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2006, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-that-build-both-military-and-civilian-equipment/372506/25 "2006-09-14T06:55:35Z")
Soltam, an ironworking company, is Israel’s largest cookingware producer - it makes exellent pots and pans the kind with with the multilayered bases - and also makes mortars, artillery pieces, tank guns and ammunition. It makes sense, actually. After all, the difference between a cooking pot and a mortar is mainly one of proportion. ---
**Author:** ![Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Throatwarbler_Mangrove)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2006, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-that-build-both-military-and-civilian-equipment/372506/26 "2006-09-14T07:13:03Z")
> [@](#): > > 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. Ironically, Subaru is the automobile division of Fuji Heavy Industries, which started life before WW2 as Nakajima Aircraft Co. Ltd and produced some of the best fighters of the war. FHI today is still a major player in aerospace, supplying a great deal of parts to Boeing/MD and producing helicopters and aircraft parts for the JASDF. The cool boxer engines used in Subarus actually contain a fair bit of aerospace technology. So saying that the “Saabaru” is “born from jets” would actually be true, more so than any of the other “real” Saab models. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-that-build-both-military-and-civilian-equipment/372506.md?page=1)