Pentagon contractors want to blow up military right to repair

Military contractors are trying to thwart a widely-supported right-to-repair provision in the annual defense policy bill — and their efforts may pay off. A source familiar with the negotiations tells The Verge that there are significant concerns that the bill’s right-to-repair language will be replaced by a “data-as-a-service” model, potentially requiring the Department of Defense to pay for access to equipment repair information.

The move, which right-to-repair advocate and YouTuber Louis Rossmann also highlighted last week, would go against the Trump administration’s stance on access to repair materials. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in May that he wants to build right-to-repair provisions in contracts with military equipment manufacturers, something the Army and Navy have both expressed support for.

Language from Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Tim Sheehy (R-MT) Warrior Right to Repair Act even made it into the Pentagon’s annual policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which passed the Senate in October. The provision would give all branches of the military the ability to fix their own equipment, while requiring contractors to provide the information needed to perform repairs.

Sen. Warren began sounding the alarm on potential outside influence earlier this month. The National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), a trade group for major DoD contractors, published a white paper that includes support for data-as-a-service, which it says could “allow the DoD to contract for access to a contractor’s full technical data library on a ‘pay-per-use’ basis” to protect the contractors’ intellectual property. The proposed language apparently mirrors what Reps. Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Adam Smith (D-WA), who head up the House Armed Services Committee, outlined in their SPEED Act, requiring the DoD to negotiate “data-as-a-service solutions to facilitate access” to repair tools and information.

We’ve already seen car manufacturers implement this kind of setup, forcing independent repair shops to pay for access to proprietary software, tools, and information. John Deere also launched an Operations Center Pro Service, an online hub that includes the information farmers need to repair their equipment, starting at $195 per machine.

Eric Fanning, the president and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) — a trade group that backs companies that make aircraft — similarly argued in a November op-ed that the right-to-repair provision would harm contractors by forcing them to “hand over their intellectual property,” as reported earlier by Roll Call. Defense contractors represented by trade groups like the NDIA and AIA are lobbying heavyweights. As pointed out by Rossmann, Rep. Rogers received more than $535,000 from the defense industry in 2024, while Rep. Smith received over $310,550. 

The final version of the NDAA is expected to be released early next week.