Right to Repair
We have talked about this – how many manufacturers basically call dibs on repairing their own products. You may recall the recent case of Big Green and Yellow, John Deere, who claimed much of their equipment repair was proprietary – users were disgruntled, repairs backed up, and not too long back it was reported that John Deere (well, United Ag and Turf, their current moniker) has to pay a healthy fine and open up a lot of their repair processes to end users. (Not an uncommon scenario… wait about 20 years when someone wants to repair a classic SportyXXX2000 – and finds out that while it was cute and fast back in the day, its computers are no longer made and the software has aged out. It’s gonna happen… ) A lot of companies feel repairs are part of their income stream… every part of a company has its own P&L.
Well, it’s making Special Ops, the source of many of the modifications that make stuff better, unhappy.
U.S. special operations leaders expressed frustration Tuesday about manufacturers’ proprietary agreements that block them from making quick upgrades to military equipment.
The problem is especially acute for unmanned systems, they said, as technology is evolving far faster than the ability of U.S. Special Operations Command to modify its drones.
Let’s say someone bright looks at a drone and says “what a great platform for a missile” – in the olden days with some duct tape and new brackets, voila! a new small rocket platform. (Think I am kidding about duct tape? I read recently that the disposable drop fuel tanks for P-51s were made of paper mache. Use once to get to German air space, jettison the tank and still have full tanks – and less drag. Freakin’ brilliant. Not sure if it’s absolutely true, but you should never let truth confuse a great story, at least the first time.)
To add a small, long-range cruise missile to an aerial platform, “I want to be able to iterate quickly on the software,” Lt. Gen. Michael Conley, chief of Air Force Special Operations Command, told the subcommittee.
“Often working with the large vendors, there’s proprietary information to get into the mission computers we hit.
Bear in mind, this does not affect our enemies. Think Hezbollah cares about who made something? But OUR guys…
For example, drug cartels, or militant groups like Al-Shabaab in Somalia, can easily acquire and modify small drones, said Maj. Gen. Peter Huntley, chief of Marine Forces Special Operations Command.
“I can buy them right now,” Huntley testified. “I can put them in the hands of our operators. But the ability to kind of adapt them, and make them a real military capability at some form of scale, is very challenging right now.”
As with civilians resentful over an inability to fix everything from cell phones to farm tractors without having to go through the manufacturer, right to repair has become a controversial issue for the U.S. military. Nonetheless, right-to-repair provisions were stripped from the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. Military Times
Ah, the MIC…
Tip o’ the hat to ol’ busted-mouth Jeff who is enduring a dental crown job this week. Hope the Royal Dentist does him proud (He sked – he has a crown, isn’t he a King?”)
Category: Exploitation, Science and Technology
If you do not have the right to repair, then the vehicle, no matter its purpose, is not your property. The auth makers have gotten deep in this scam with “VIN blocking.” Starting with 2026 models, even changing the tires will brick your vehicle. It is nothing more than theft.
A solution is in the works.
The very quiet announcement by Sec Army Wormuth of Operation Jailbreak to the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month was missed by most of the public.
Jailbreaking in the hacking world is a type of hack that hacks into a system the user is authorized to use but increases access and privileges to root level. Hackers identify kernel level vulnerability and once they gain access can do all kinds of things such as rewriting code to make it more compatible with other systems and newer systems, which is exactly what the Army is doing with Operation Jailbreak.
This is not illegal although on the civil side it might violate a user agreement or two.
All this is taking place at Fort Carson and involves hundreds of soldiers, contractors and Ukrainian advisers. You heard that right, the Ukrainianians are advising us on how to build a digital network. The end game is to have a seamless network of drones, intelligence and communication which is what the Ukraine has already built and are basically kicking Russia out of the Ukraine with.
Suddenly, someone found out that we are light years behind the Ukraine who have already built this type network. And now we really need it if we don’t want to lose the next war.
It isn’t well known because casualties were so low but Iran handed our ass to us in the early days of the war and destroyed a number of key strategic assets that were once thought untouchable. It was a huge wake up call though. Trump, who goes his own way a lot heeded the call and rather than parade failure in front of Congress, hat in hand l, asking for money to fix things decided not to spend $50 Billion doing what the Ukes did for millions and just do it ourselves, probably much faster and definitely cheaper. I just hope that they do a good job, our next war is literally riding on this.
With everything relying on computer tech so much, it’s both funny and scary to think about what the future holds. My ’46 Willys requires some hand tools and know how to run forever. There are people out there who could repair the engine block if it cracked, and plenty of NOS and reproduction parts are on the market. A classic muscle car might require a specialty reproduction shop or some fabrication to replace body panels and lenses, but the drive train is as serviceable as the Willys.
Buy a 2026 Corvette and give it 20 years. Is the software going to lag as much as my five-year-old cell phone and four-year-old computer? You won’t be able to go to a sheet metal shop to have a new fender crafted, either. Better hope you know someone with a big 3D printer.
I don’t do much work on our newest vehicle, a 2021 Ford Transit Connect, but I do like to maintain my other vehicles, lawn mower, and everything else with a motor. If it’s user serviceable, you can usually make it work long enough to get out of a bind. Years ago, I found out how much it sucks to have non-serviceable vehicles, when my neighbor’s Ford Explorer had a cracked transmission line and had to be towed. Sealed transmission meant we couldn’t just add fluid and get back to the house. Even now, I’m driving with a slight radiator leak. New radiator is in the garage but I’m lazy. No problem, add a quart of water a day and it’s good to go. I wonder if any vehicles have sealed coolant systems (with no way to add coolant/antifreeze/water) by now?
Since the fenders on the C8 are made of sheet molded composite, I’m going to say a sheet metal shop will be of little use.
My Toyota FJ Cruiser had a “sealed” automatic transmission system yet I was still able to figure out how to change the fluid with a little help from YouTube. Most of these type things are hackable.
A Gang had a machine shop onboard to repair and machine new parts that were not stocked onboard..I remember I had to fix a leaky overhead valve so I went below to the machine shop and one ov the MR’s gives me a square piece of glass with a tube of abrasive material and I lapped the part on the glass until the lapped part was slicker than nose snot..
A-Div. (Auxilary) maintened all the auxiliary equipment from the ships whistle on the ships mast down to the reefer flats above the deck plated bilge..Not too many people know this that US Navy ships were held together by a tube of Permatex back in the day./grin
Before my post active duty final retirement. I was a support contractor to the Government on a number of Development/Acquisition programs. I worked on the review of the Technical Data Package the Government had contracted for. Some of these issues are self inflicted. Especially when it comes to Electronics. I cringe whenever I hear beltway insiders talk about COTS (Commercial off the shelf) usage. With many of our weapon systems having long lives think B-52, A-10, E-3 AWACS can you really expect the electronics to have the same long lives, or the off airframe support equipment to have the same long lives.
OFF TOPIC,
Hopefuly the temp crown won’t fall off again and I will sweat out next week until I get the real one installed. Front tooth is small and hopefully the permanent one will hold it’s ground. So being a crowned King, I can live in a castle and sing “Castle In The Sky” 1957 by the NYC Bop Chords on the Holliday Label. Love the tune on the BW side.,,,Hit it Beans…