Military personnel are often blocked from repairing their own equipment due to manufacturer restrictions. In wartime, that could be fatal.
Here’s something that Democrats and Republicans ought to be able to agree on: When Americans serving in the military are trying to protect our country and each other, they should not be strangled by red tape that prevents them from fixing broken weapons and tools. And yet that is exactly the danger they currently face.
If a war broke out tomorrow, American troops may struggle to repair and maintain the assets they need to defend themselves and defeat the enemy — not because they aren’t capable of making those repairs or hiring a third party who can, but because they are contractually forbidden from doing it.
Currently, many Department of Defense contracts reserve the task of repairs to personnel authorized by the manufacturer. Such restrictions can apply to everything from backup generators to F-35 fighters. Lacking access to the necessary data, tools, parts and training, troops in the field must either ship broken gear back home or fly out contractors tied to manufacturers — raising costs and imposing potentially dangerous delays.
Believe it or not, military members have actually been told that they can’t cobble parts together or do their own repairs. This flies in the face of one of our most storied strengths: American ingenuity.