Sometimes there's nothing you can do to fix something and a piece of equipment has to be shipped off and repaired (in my line of work this has usually required

Sometimes there's nothing you can do to fix something and a piece of equipment has to be shipped off and repaired (in my line of work this has usually required cranes to take communication terminals off ships!). Usually the military will want to have spares though, so there are options if field repair isn't viable. The manufacturer/contracting company will always have a contract with the customer limiting liability so no, you're not going to be tried for anything but the company might get sued for breech of contract if things go really wrong. But my experience has been they they are pretty chill as long as you're respectful, make it obvious that you're competent and you know what you're talking about (which requires actually being competent, not something you can fake for long in that kind of situation!), and offer alternatives and solutions to get things going again.