German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius intends to order an additional 15 F-35 fighter jets from U.S. manufacturer Lockheed Martin, a parliamentary source told Reuters on Monday, confirming a report by Spiegel magazine.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius intends to order an additional 15 F-35 fighter jets from U.S. manufacturer Lockheed Martin, a parliamentary source told Reuters on Monday, confirming a report by Spiegel magazine.
Even if there is no literal kill switch, you can easily ground a high tech gadget like a modern fighter jet in short order by ceasing delivery of spare parts.
A good amount of the parts are already produced in Europe. Also there is over 20 F-35 operators already, almost all friendly to each other. Unless the US would cut of everyone from crucial spare part deliveries, they could still be sourced.
Also if the US would actually do such a thing that would guarantee that no one will ever buy their fighter jets again and they love selling fighter jets. It’s just not a realistic scenario.
The US has never done anything stupid that has damaged itself more than others, especially not the current government, right?
At this point, the US should be considered both an enemy and a Russian client state. Whenever Putin makes a phone call to Trump, he will parrot whatever Putin is saying for a couple weeks.
I don’t think that Trump would be allowed to fuck with Lockheed Martin’s stock price.
At the current state of affairs it looks more like he is allowed to do anything he likes and nobody is going to stop him.
But if there is any institution that can stop him, at least from fucking them over, it’s the military industrial complex.
They haven’t done anything like that so far, why should they now, or in the future?
I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Trumps constant flip-flopping on Ukraine is a an example where you can be sure that both the military and the adjacent industries are lobbying behind the scenes.
The thing is, neither he, nor the country with a political system and societal climate that got him into office for a second time can be trusted.
Parts are made in Australia as well. I know because I’ve been part of protests urging the government to stop sending them to Israel.