Military leaders are working to revise contract rules that currently prevent service members from repairing the equipment they use every day. These restrictions stem from agreements with private companies that hold exclusive rights to repair, effectively barring troops from making the fixes themselves.
During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Navy Secretary John Phelan told lawmakers that sailors should be allowed to repair the equipment they are trained to operate, rather than wait for contractors.
“I am a huge supporter of ‘right to repair,'” Phelan said, noting that his views are shaped by firsthand experiences with the issue in the fleet.
“I went on the [USS Gerald R. Ford] carrier; they had eight ovens — this is a ship that serves 15,300 meals a day,” Phelan said. “Only two were working. Six were out [for repair].”
The USS Gerald R. Ford is America’s largest and most expensive nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, with a crew of more than 4,500.
Phelan said he was surprised upon learning that the ship responsible for feeding so many people, did not have anyone authorized to fix the broken ovens. Sailors, he explained, were capable of doing the repairs but were barred from doing so under contract terms.
He also noted that when elevators on the ship broke down, they had to wait for contractors to diagnose and repair the issue.
The Pentagon is now pushing to ensure new contracts allow the military to repair its own gear.
In an April 30 memo, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth directed the Army Secretary to “identify and propose contract modifications for right to repair provisions where intellectual property constraints limit the Army’s ability to conduct maintenance and access the appropriate maintenance tools, software, and technical data.”
Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll spoke about the change during a June 4 congressional hearing. “We have been directed to not sign any contracts that don’t give us a right to repair,” Driscoll said. “We’ve also been told to go back and try to add it to older contracts.”
Driscoll added that contractors who do not offer this flexibility may struggle to win future business with the Army.
