It’s not so much a kill switch as the F-35 being a hangar queen, needing a steady and constant supply of parts and software updates. That itself is a good reason to reconsider the purchase, though.
There is nothing this technologically advanced that the manufacturers cant brick or severely impair if pushed to do so (if not by remote command, then by support neglect), and you can be guaranteed the Americans know of remote vulnerabilities as well. Thats a given. We can 100% expect they would be tarmac bricks within weeks of the USA breaking hard from NATO or Canada.
Fyi, they could also brick nearly every modern large tractor in the country right at harvest season, and most of our street vehicles. All via standard remote update infrastructure.
Thats just the reality of modern tech. It would be the same with other options, but we should pick a country not threatening to annex us to buy from.
It feels like going through with the F35 purchase is becoming politically untenable.
hard to justify buying weapons from a country threatening to invade you unless you’re Europe
Not to mention the possibility of a kill switch the can turn it all off and effectively make it useless for defence.
It’s not so much a kill switch as the F-35 being a hangar queen, needing a steady and constant supply of parts and software updates. That itself is a good reason to reconsider the purchase, though.
Hanger Queen was always my favourite ABBA song.
There is nothing this technologically advanced that the manufacturers cant brick or severely impair if pushed to do so (if not by remote command, then by support neglect), and you can be guaranteed the Americans know of remote vulnerabilities as well. Thats a given. We can 100% expect they would be tarmac bricks within weeks of the USA breaking hard from NATO or Canada.
Fyi, they could also brick nearly every modern large tractor in the country right at harvest season, and most of our street vehicles. All via standard remote update infrastructure.
Thats just the reality of modern tech. It would be the same with other options, but we should pick a country not threatening to annex us to buy from.
that is a Reddit rumor. there is no physcial “kill switch”, it’s a metaphor for dependence on US sold parts.
Anything we buy made in the US is an effective “kill switch”.
We should be abandoning it for the same reason the US navy abandoned the F35: it doesn’t fucking work.