The U.S. Navy’s maintainers have had to strip submarines and fighter jets for spare parts to repair other planes and subs, a government watchdog found. The Government Accountability Office found that limited intellectual property and data rights, coupled with delays in the availability of parts, were forcing technicians to develop ad-hoc methods including cannibalizing equipment to help keep certain vehicles mission-ready.

The GAO report, released late in September, found that the Department of Defense did not fully review the data rights it has to certain intellectual property, leading to issues in maintaining weapons systems. Business Insider first reported on the GAO’s findings. The watchdog examined five Navy contracts — the F/A-18 and F-35 fighter jets, littoral combat ships, the Str

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