A COMPANY THAT has been designing and manufacturing light- and medium-duty trucks for military and government use for more than 30 years - AM General Corp.-- and General Motors of North America have recently entered into an agreement to jointly produce a new sport utility vehicle based on the technology used in the Hummer. The two companies will construct a multimillion-dollar plant expansion to build the SUVs at the site of the AM General Corp. production facility in South Bend/Mishawaka, Ind.

The existing 96-acre site has 570,000 square feet of production facilities. The companies are acquiring 35 additional acres on which to build 630,000 square feet of new production space. The Mishawaka plant currently produces more than 3,000 Hummer vehicles annually for military and commercial use. The production of the Hummer-like SUVs will result in the creation of about 1,500 additional jobs at the facility. Moreover, the project's subcontracting and purchasing activities will result in as many as 10,000 jobs across the region.