• A new bipartisan effort aims to let troops repair military gear, reducing contractor reliance.
• Current contracts restrict military repairs, causing delays and increased costs for the DoD.
• Similar right-to-repair issues affect other industries, like tech and agriculture.

Troops often find themselves surrounded by gear they cannot legally fix. A bipartisan push is trying to allow troops to turn to their own wrenches to repair military equipment rather than relying on civilian contractors.

Service members are allowed to fix a lot of military equipment on their own, with many troops specializing in mechanical repair for guns, aircraft, and even weapons optics.

But some equipment contracts come with strict provisions that stipulate that repairs can only be performed by contractors and limit the technical data and intellectual property that can be shared with troops for repairs. Some lawmakers say these stipulations are problematic for troops in need of urgent repairs and take advantage of DoD funding.

"When you're deployed in the field and you have a mission to complete and you have people's lives to protect, it just doesn't make sense to be constrained by some commercial agreement that you have with the manufacturers," said Greg Williams, the director of the Center for Defense Information at the Project on Government Oversight.

Now, a bipartisan push from senators Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Tim Sheehy, a Montana Republican, is calling for a change amid new movement on the National Defense Authorization Act.

These lawmakers highlight instances of the Navy ferrying contractors to sea for simple fixes, Marines in Japan forced to send engines to the US for repair instead of repair on site, and one contractor that "charged $900 a page for upgrades to its maintenance manuals for an Air Force aircraft."

These moves mark the latest in a string of actions to overcome right-to-repair barriers.

A 2023 California bill, for example, spurred Apple to endorse the ability for consumers to repair and modify their own devices. Medical device manufacturers came under fire during the pandemic for troublesome restrictions on ventilator repair. And US farmers have criticized farming equipment manufacturer John Deere, now embroiled in a federal lawsuit, for what they see as prohibitively restrictive controls on repair part access and burdensome diagnostics tech tools.

President Donald Trump's tariffs could strengthen the right-to-repair movement throughout the nation, as some consumers grow increasingly reluctant to toss out high-priced goods that are damaged and seek to repair them instead.

Top Pentagon brass have pushed for comprehensive changes to repair policies since January. Amid major transformation initiatives within the Army, Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have each called for the inclusion of right-to-repair provisions in all new and existing Army contracts.

Navy Secretary John Phelan told lawmakers in June that when visiting the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, he discovered six of the ship's eight ovens, essential tools required to feed thousands of sailors, were out for repair, adding that crewmembers aboard the vessel were legally prohibited from performing repairs.

"It is crazy. We should be able to fix this," he said.

Such high-level advocacy comes as other military leaders have observed that future warfare will require more innovative fixes from troops on the front lines.

"The force of the future will fix on the spot," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said during a congressional hearing on military spending last month. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars saw robust base build-ups for troops, where equipment could be sent for intensive maintenance needs with the near-assurance of US air supremacy. Such guarantees are almost certainly a thing of the past, experts say, at least for high-end fights.

Right now, "it all comes down to the particulars of the contract involved," Williams explained. "Different contractors have arrived at different arrangements with the Defense Department about when they have a chokehold on repairs and when they don't."

"And so it needs to be negotiated on a contract-by-contract basis," he said.

Williams pointed to a near-miss naval incident and subsequent relief of USS John McCain's captain as a clear example of what can happen when repairs go unaddressed. The destroyer nearly collided with another vessel during a refueling operation when the ship's lingering steering problems arose unexpectedly.

It's unclear whether the right to repair would have prevented that outcome, but the argument for it is that it eliminates the unnecessary tension that exists today.

As things stand now, Williams said, "it comes down to a push and pull between the manufacturer and the consumer."

• Nearly 30 M1A1 Abrams tanks will roll down Constitution Ave. in DC for the Army's 250th birthday.
• The service is finalizing plans to prevent the heavy 70-ton tanks from damaging the road.
• Engineers will use steel plates and track pads to protect roads during the parade.

The powerful M1A1 Abrams tank, with its heavy armor and 120mm cannon, is a massive hulk of steel, and dozens are set to hit the streets in the nation's capital next month.

Nearly 30 of the tanks are expected to rumble down Constitution Avenue as part of the US Army's 250th anniversary celebration on June 14, set to coincide with President Donald Trump's birthday.

The street, which runs parallel to the National Mall and serves as a major route for city traffic, isn't built to easily accommodate each tank's nearly 70-ton frame. Most cars weigh only about two tons.

So how is the Army going to keep its tanks from chewing up Constitution Avenue? The service's engineers are putting the finishing touches on plans to protect the busy street's pavement from biting tracks.

Officials aren't too concerned with the straight path down Constitution, which will likely see a single file of tanks. It's turning points that will be the most vulnerable to tears from the heavy tracked vehicles.

"We are targeting those areas that we have concerns," said Army Col. Jesse Curry, Executive Officer for the Army's Chief of Engineers, during a media roundtable with reporters on Wednesday. "Particularly the areas where the surface of the pavement would typically, you know, receive an exaggerated level of stress."

To prevent such stress, military engineers are figuring out which turn points will be layered with steel plates at least one inch thick.

Such large plates are commonly seen on city streets where heavy equipment is used, Curry said, adding that equipment staging areas and the parade route were specially chosen to minimize weight-related damage.

Heavy tracked vehicles like the M1A1 often make turns by using differential steering — one side will roll forward while the other reverses, or the tracks will operate at a different speed. That can cause tracks to "pinch," a problem for asphalt.

Inbound parade tanks will also don new "track pads," rubber components that create some separation between the metal tracks and the pavement, Curry told reporters.

Additional measures to prevent damage are still being examined, with help from DC's Department of Transportation, the National Park Service (which oversees maintenance of the National Mall), and the Federal Highway Administration.

The tanks and other vehicles, such as Bradley fighting vehicles and Strykers, will arrive in the DC area via rail and will then depart to parade staging areas via heavy-duty trailers, similar to those used to move houses down highways.

Troops will not be conducting any full-scale rehearsals for the parade, a notable deviation from typical military planning. Normally, complete rehearsals are an important part of any military mission, including small unit ceremonies.

Officials said Wednesday that while the Army has been planning a major 250th birthday event for two years, the idea to include heavy vehicles like tanks and other armored vehicles in a parade only arrived this year. The officials did not specify how the idea originated.

Even moving at a slow parade pace, any military activity using heavy equipment and vehicles is fraught with concerns that require meticulous planning for safety precautions, especially when it comes to the equipment offloads required to stage for such a parade. Large vehicles must rely on ground guides to ensure no one is inadvertently run over.

Officials said Wednesday that Hercules wreckers will be available to recover any tanks that break down. How roads might handle the behemoth 70-ton M88 Hercules recovery vehicle with a downed tank on its trailer bed is unclear.