After all sorts of doom-and-gloom from the area's vehicle manufacturers and customizers, it looks like things could be turning around.

Ailing Protected Vehicles (maker of mine-resistant war vehicles) could soon be owned by the same company as the likewise ailing American LaFrance, possibly allowing for them to combine strategic assets.

And Force Protection (also a maker of mine-resistant war vehicles) has been seeing an increase in domestic and international demand.

The Charleston Regional Business Journal has a write-up about the "war vehicle industry fighting back." It's thorough and well-constructed, here's an excerpt:
After laying off workers in the past eight months, Force Protection Industries Inc. and Protected Vehicles Inc. are poised for more work, with American LaFrance in Summerville potentially part of the mix.

Force Protection just inked two more multimillion-dollar work orders, and PVI is zigzagging its way out of bankruptcy and possibly into the arms of a New York investment company with a history of injecting new life into businesses.

All in all things seem to be looking up for those companies, and Charleston, as the trio once employed some 3,000 in the region, presently the number is more along the lines of 2,000.