Lawn wars: Garden tractor manufacturers, plumbing providers and more are lobbying against the US military's right to repair its equipment
The right to repair our devices is a bit of a hot-button issue these days, what with the European Parliament strengthening rules to protect consumer rights, and the odd public spat between major tech manufacturers and repair guide providers. You'd think, however, that the US military would have no trouble ensuring that the equipment it buys from third party manufacturers was able to be repaired and maintained in-house.
Not so, according to a document obtained by 404 media. Multiple manufacturers that currently sell to the US military are lobbying against legislation that would require military contractors to make it easier to repair their equipment, which strikes as something of a bold move when you're talking about standing in the way of the US Government and the most well-funded military in the world.
Senator Elizabeth Warren called for new right to repair legislation in regards to the US military in May of this year, explaining that, under the current system, service members are prevented from maintaining or repairing equipment due to restrictions placed on deals with the government. Section 828 of the Defence Reauthorisation Act was introduced, calling for a requirement for contractors to provide «reasonable access» to repair materials.
Unsurprisingly, outside contractors that serve the US Military would prefer to land lucrative repair contracts, rather than have their products fixed by the military themselves. As a result, ridiculous situations have been known to occur, and Senator Warren was only too keen to give examples.
«Take the Navy's Littoral combat ship. General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin considered much of the data on the ship to be proprietary, so the Navy had to delay missions and spend millions of dollars on travel costs, just so that contractor-affiliated repairmen could fly in, rather than doing this ourselves»
It's a fair point. While we rightly bemoan attempts to block us from repairing things like our phones and laptops, when it comes to
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