Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) is calling on Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, to block an Israeli defense technology company from establishing a manufacturing and engineering hub in Sterling Heights, a Detroit suburb.
Capture Group Inc., the U.S. entity of Israel-based Capture Systems Ltd., plans to invest at least $5 million in the Macomb County city and create at least 125 jobs over the next five years, according to Whitmer’s office. The facility will produce counter-drone platforms, optical surveillance systems and mobile defense systems, as well as develop, integrate and test counter-UAS technology and remote-controlled weapon stations.
The project received a $936,000 performance-based grant through the Michigan Business Development Program, administered by the Michigan Strategic Fund. The jobs are expected to start at $25 an hour plus benefits.
Tlaib said on Sunday that the governor is funding “bombs that kill children” instead of “small businesses, many of them black- and women-owned” that are struggling in the state, and accused Capture Systems of producing weapons “used to commit genocide.”
She called Michigan an “anti-war and anti-genocide state,” adding that Capture Systems has “no place in our state and should not be receiving a dime of public funds.”
Michigan state representative Noah Arbit, who represents the state’s 20th District, defended the project, stating that the company produces “the kinds of systems that the U.S. needs to compete with China, Russia and other adversaries.”
