Before announcing the creation of two Pentagon-led manufacturing hubs to foster innovation, President Obama joked Tuesday the White House was undertaking a special project — comic book hero Tony Stark’s “Iron Man” suit.
“Basically I’m here to announce that we’re building Iron Man,” he said, drawing laughs at a White House event. “I’m going to blast off in a second.”
“Not really. Maybe. It’s classified,” he joked.
The two hubs, located in Chicago and Detroit, were pledged in Obama’s 2013 State of the Union address and will receive a federal infusion of $140 million. They will focus on light metal manufacturing and high-tech digital manufacturing and design.
“I don’t want the next big manufacturing innovation to come from Germany, Japan or France. I want it to be here in America,” Obama said.
