Senators Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Guarantee Military Right to Repair Its Equipment
Senators Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Guarantee Military Right to Repair Its Equipment
The Official U.S. Senate website of Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts
U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) introduced the Warrior Right to Repair Act of 2025, legislation that would require contractors to provide the Department of Defense (DoD) with access to technical data and materials the military needs to repair and maintain its own equipment.
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So the military has been bound by the same handcuffs that McDonalds is with it's ice cream machines?
It was messed up that McDonalds agreed to that. It's TERRIFYING that the group in charge of our military ever did.
Yeah its absolutely wild. Even Louis Rossman has done some videos about the military's lack of right to repair. Its insane to me that you'd buy a multi-billion dollar jet like the F-35, and legally be unable to repair it without calling in (and paying a hefty service contract for) someone from Lockheed or Pratt and Whitney to troubleshoot it. That can't be sustainable if you do end up needing to send a ton of these things into combat
Not to mention the toxic incentives it creates when the vendor is the only one allowed to repair the thing they sold you. If they get a paycheck every time they repair the thing they build, then obviously they're gonna build that thing to break.
Exactly. This is completely insane. The DoD has the negotiating leverage to write these right to repair requirements into their RFPs, specifications, and contracts. The idea that their procurement offices simply failed to do this boggles my mind.
Back in the war, if you had a winning design, you were required to license it, full drawings included, to many different manufacturers at fair prices. The Defense Production Act is still on the books, and it contains a lot of power to control the economy. Why is DoD handcuffing themselves?
One of the videos in question has a direct call to action to support this bill
Service contracts are where the money is at!
Gotta get that recurring revenue!
McDonald's was happy to do it because they're not really in the restaurant owning business. They force their franchisees to use the exact ice cream machine they get paid by Taylor to enforce. It's a literal racket
Now the military part... Yeah, that's fucked up, I always thought Uncle Sam got the right to repair their own shit but apparently not.
mcdonalds is a real estate bussiness
I think that's just in the US. They also have franchisees elsewhere that still have to pay for the franchise rights. They're for sure not in the restaurant business though, at least not big time. That's risky and costly so the franchisees get to take that risk.
At least in the US, most (all?) stores are still franchises, but the property is owned by McDonalds. Basically, a franchise owner rents the building in much the same way that they rent the ice cream machine. Franchise ownership just means you get the right to run a particular building and make whatever the agreed-upon cut is.
So the military has been bound by the same handcuffs that McDonalds is with it’s ice cream machines?
Yes... It's funny because I worked on a platform called the MLRS. I saw what repairs to the circuitry of the GPS and other modules look like. I could have fixed it myself... by hand... The circuit boards were vietnam era looking stuff (the platform was from the 80's, but developed during the 70s)... Meaning the trace pitch was measured in mm. Like I could pop open shit and eyeball and solder that shit with crappy $10 bargain bin soldering iron. But nah, needed to get a special civilian to show up and replace the board (they didn't even try to fix it).
Unclear if you worked for the army, or for Mcdonalds. Either way you were probably paid about the same, and had to go to war every day.
Mcdonalds 20% less morally compromising, much worse benefits.
About the same amount of mcrib.
McDonalds made money from the deal. They were paid by Taylor to force their franchisees to use their ice cream machines with the extortionist service contract.
The US military is not for national defense, it's a pay pig for a handful of corporations.
idk why this is downvoted. literally all the US military does is make money for contractors, hopefully by cracking brown children's skulls, but that's just a bonus for them.