Struggling carmakers losing thousands in militant competition (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
arms race
'competition' is the definition.
(arms race is a kind of competition)
'struggling carmakers losing thousands in militant' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'thousands' could be 'ms' ('M' can be a synonym of 'thousand') and 'ms' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for arms race that I've seen before include "Weaponry competition" , "International competition for weapons" , "Weapon competition" , "dangerous situation escalating" , "rush to war" .)