> because the government didn’t have data rights to the design in order to hold down development costs
Isn't this the very problem? These kinds of contracts should be illegal, not just in the military, but across the whole public sector. Not getting full designs along with a custom product makes the public agency dependent on a commercial vendor. Might as well put a neon sign above should provision that says "a loophole for defrauding the public".
Yes. They should have data rights. It very quickly becomes false economy.
On a similar topic, a lot of LRUs (Line Replaceable Unit) in aircraft such as the F-35, the front-line maintainers, or even squadron/wing level avionics shops, can't even do basic diagnostics on the LRU. They either have to get a manufacturer tech representative to do it, or send the box back to the manufacture for repair. They are routinely returned "No fault found" with a significant cost attached.
Isn't this the very problem? These kinds of contracts should be illegal, not just in the military, but across the whole public sector. Not getting full designs along with a custom product makes the public agency dependent on a commercial vendor. Might as well put a neon sign above should provision that says "a loophole for defrauding the public".