The US Army is getting in on right-to-repair

The US Army is done relying on contractors to repair its equipment. Earlier this month, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll committed to including right-to-repair provisions in all existing and future contracts with manufacturers, a change Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) told The Verge will “put an end to our dependence on giant defense contractors who charge billions of dollars and take months to repair critical equipment.”

For now, only the Army has committed to securing right-to-repair provisions in contracts. But Warren is pushing for other military branches to adopt the requirement, addressing long-standing repairability problems across the armed forces. She’s also hopeful that it could have a broader impact across industries and serve as a model for how other companies and organizations can advocate for similar repair-friendly provisions.

For years, reports have highlighted the US military’s struggle to fix its own equipment, forcing it to wait on defense contractors to service them — even when stationed in foreign countries. A 2019 report from The New York Times described how a maintenance Marine in South Korea couldn’t repair a generator needed for training “because of the warranty,” despite having tools to fix them.

The same report said that engines at a US military base in Okinawa, Japan, “were packed up and shipped back to contractors in the United States for repairs,” while ProPublica found that the Navy’s contract with General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin forced the US military to fly contractors to the ship to make repairs on “proprietary” equipment, “adding millions in travel costs and often delaying missions.”

Warren pushed the Army to take a tougher stance on right-to-repair through 2024, calling out the “costly restrictions” that prevent the military from fixing its own equipment in a letter to the Department of Defense. Warren and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA) later introduced the Servicemember Right-to-Repair Act, which would require contractors to provide the military with “fair and reasonable access” to parts, tools, and information needed to repair equipment. The bill was introduced in December 2024 but has not reached the House floor yet.

The US military is a major force for manufacturers to contend with — and Warren hopes that adopting repairability rules will have a ripple effect far outside it. “The Army’s commitment to right to repair shows other industries that they can do the same,” Warren says. “If it can happen here, it can happen in farm equipment, washing machines, consumer electronics… and every place else that big manufacturers have tried to take two bites at the apple: the initial price and another bite at the consumer to cover subsequent repairs.”