Okay so just to clarify what the software lockdown on F-35 means is that other country except the USA aren’t allowed to create update to the software.
Exception for Israel and maybe the UK (don’t quote me) are allowed to modify the software themselves.
It doesn’t mean a instant kill switch. But it does mean that if the USA decides to block someone from update it’s much harder for a country to make their own update.
Any fighter jet requires a lot of maintenance, and the F35 requires more than most.
If they US cut us off from getting parts for the planes it wouldn’t take too long before they wouldn’t be flying anymore.
And yeah the biggest concern for me is a country that’s potential adversary being able to shut down our air force when they want. I’d say it’s not likely they’d do this to attack us militarily, but I could definitely see a them doing this to put pressure on us in a trade negotiation. They did temporarily cut off Ukraine from supply in the middle of a war to pressure them, that’s a line that should never be crossed, and they crossed it. So yeah they’d be willing ground our airf orce to strong arm us someday.
So using American planes makes the RCAF a potential liability in negotiations in the future. The military should be a strength in geopolitics, not a liability.
The Swedish offer shouldn’t just be about jobs, though that’s a nice bonus. If we’re building the parts for the planes here in Canada then no one can cut us off and ground our planes.
Weren’t some of the US helicopters that were captured in Ukraine remotely disabled? I seem to remember a Russian general having a hissy fit about it early in the invasion.
Ukraine doesn’t really operate western helicopter in general so the story may have been about something else. We have reports of the Russian using captured American armor vehicles. So no kill switch in those.
Okay so just to clarify what the software lockdown on F-35 means is that other country except the USA aren’t allowed to create update to the software. Exception for Israel and maybe the UK (don’t quote me) are allowed to modify the software themselves.
It doesn’t mean a instant kill switch. But it does mean that if the USA decides to block someone from update it’s much harder for a country to make their own update.
is it actually possible for the USA to stop one of these jets from functioning?
if the answers is anything other than “absolutely impossible, no matter what”, these jets are worthless
Any fighter jet requires a lot of maintenance, and the F35 requires more than most.
If they US cut us off from getting parts for the planes it wouldn’t take too long before they wouldn’t be flying anymore.
And yeah the biggest concern for me is a country that’s potential adversary being able to shut down our air force when they want. I’d say it’s not likely they’d do this to attack us militarily, but I could definitely see a them doing this to put pressure on us in a trade negotiation. They did temporarily cut off Ukraine from supply in the middle of a war to pressure them, that’s a line that should never be crossed, and they crossed it. So yeah they’d be willing ground our airf orce to strong arm us someday.
So using American planes makes the RCAF a potential liability in negotiations in the future. The military should be a strength in geopolitics, not a liability.
The Swedish offer shouldn’t just be about jobs, though that’s a nice bonus. If we’re building the parts for the planes here in Canada then no one can cut us off and ground our planes.
exactly right, IMO
Weren’t some of the US helicopters that were captured in Ukraine remotely disabled? I seem to remember a Russian general having a hissy fit about it early in the invasion.
I assumed F35s have a similar lockout mechanism.
If you have an article or maybe remember more details about that story?
The closest I could find is this.
Ukraine doesn’t really operate western helicopter in general so the story may have been about something else. We have reports of the Russian using captured American armor vehicles. So no kill switch in those.
Hrm… Yeah, I’m not finding anything either. Might be I misunderstood something at the time, or took a rumor at the time as fact.