Spaceship crew loses piece of equipment, lies about it, causes all other spaceships to be grounded

Years ago I read a short story about a spaceship crew who were reviewing a checklist of equipment but couldn't figure out what one of the items was supposed to be (it was some sort of abbreviation). It was a military spaceship, so inspectors were used to make sure that no equipment was lost (and it would be a huge problem for them if they had to tell the inspector that they "lost" this item).

Rather than admit they couldn't find this piece of equipment they devised a scheme to report it as destroyed, and then they would be issued a new one and figure out what it was. They claimed it was destroyed in an FTL jump (or something similar). When this was reported, the high command immediately ordered all other spaceships grounded until the cause could be determined.

The reveal turned out to be that the item they were missing was

I believe the story was written several decades ago, perhaps in the 70s or so. I think the author is fairly well known.

What is the title of this short story?