• picnic@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Is that a stated fact that somewhere that the US can remotely disable the f35s?

    While I understand that f35 needs constant maintenance, tooling and spareparts, which are bought from the orange man, is the remotely disabling part assessed somewhere? Because I find it unlikely that partners would buy f35s if so

    • Valmond@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      They don’t have a killswitch (for what I know) but softwate is updated all the time, for example you’d update the soft after an enemy encounter, because you have new information about how the enemy now.

      Not doing so “degrades” the capability quickly compared to a fully functional jet.

      Also, all attack plans are uploaded to the pentagon so they know where when what you are intending to strike. A no no if you don’t trust them 100% ir you don’t trust they’re professional (like sharing warplanes on unprotected devices hrmmm).

      So basically it’s a shit system for any European IMO.

      • Arancello@aussie.zone
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        3 days ago

        And on top of that, the country that bought the spare parts doesn’t own them. They are owned by the manufacturer and are held on consignment where the F35s are. Australia recently had their inventory of spares plundered by the manufacturer at the request of the US government and sent to Israel. Australia found out the hard way that they actually own very little of the jets.

      • jaybone@lemmy.zip
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        3 days ago

        I wouldn’t use the term software update to describe those things though.

        • musubibreakfast@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          Nah, after every bombing run I pull out the ol usb-c cord and hook up my fighter jet to my laptop for a firmware update.

          • Klear@quokk.au
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            3 days ago

            I mean, you need to charge the battery so you might as well update it while you’re doing that.

            • musubibreakfast@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              Yeah, it’s so awkward when you run out of battery during a tactical maneuver and you have to fly through enemy air space to borrow a power bank.

        • falseWhite@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          What term would you use? I’m fairly certain software is the correct term. Firmware? Drivers?

          • jaybone@lemmy.zip
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            3 days ago

            What the parent comment is describing appears to be downloading of data. Not a software update.

            You’re not going to perform a software update after every single encounter with an enemy. You might upload/download data for analysis purposes, mission updates, etc. but you’re not going to actually update the software in such a situation.

    • Señor Mono@feddit.org
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      3 days ago

      It is rather unclear.

      The mentioned maintenance and hardware is one aspect. Another one the software suite. Buyers like Germany and UK claim that sensor fusioning is processed in national clouds, but e.g. Bundeswehr heavily relies on American infrastructure.

      So I guess in the end there doesn’t have to be explicit kill switch if you can starve out the maintenance or software support (e.g. updates or processing)