Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > comp.misc > #28255

Re: Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To "Jailbreak" Their F-35 Fighters

Show all headers | View raw

Marco Moock <mm@dorfdsl.de> wrote:
> On 18.02.2026 22:53 Uhr Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>> The operating system apparently runs to 8 million lines of code, and
>> of course it's encrypted/obfuscated. But so are lots of games on
>> consoles and PCs that use elaborate copy-protection and anti-cheat
>> mechanisms. And there are quite a few people with experience wading
>> their way through mazes like that.
> 
> Although, if that fails, it doesn't affect an aircraft which might then
> crash.

It probably depends whether it's really a kill switch, or more
likely some proprietary way of talking to the computer during
routine maintenance. But I seriously doubt that Dutch politician
has any idea what he's talking about. If the Americans didn't
want them flying the fighters, they could just block shipments of
spare parts and they'd all be offline for maintenance before long
anyway.

>> Of course the US officially denies that the hardware it sells to other
>> countries has any kind of "kill switch" in it. So maybe the EU has a
>> Plan B, maybe it doesn't ...
> 
> No access to the code - no trust regarding this.

The American military might not have access to the code either!
US military contractors have a history of keeping their designs
private, and the government already had to take Lockheed Martin
to court to force them to hand over some software just for
_simulating_ the F-35, which LH claimed included proprietary
algorithms:

https://sdquebec.ca/fr/nouvelle/lockheed-and-pentagon-joust-over-lucrative-f-35-data-rights

Then LH billed them $500 million for data to manage the F-35's
spare parts:

https://breakingdefense.com/2022/04/pentagon-wants-500m-to-get-data-to-manage-f-35-parts/

""What tool do we use? How do I replace it? What tool do we use to 
 put it back on? Those are the kinds of specific levels of 
 information that's part of technical data," said Maurer."

So basically $500m for a copy of the parts and service manuals from
the sounds of that, for an aircraft produced by a programme that
the US government themselves funded. And people say Trump is
America's biggest bully...

Actually in one of the current US government's more sensible moves,
they're talking of changing policy to require intellectual property
for future weapons programs to be owned by government instead of the
arms companies that designed them. Of course other countries
including Europeans will surely keep getting ripped off like mugs.
Indeed I strongly suspect all the maintenance on F-35s owned by
other countries is done by LM contractors anyway, so software rights
are a moot point when nobody in a foreign military even knows how to
change a tyre on one.

-- 
__          __
#_ < |\| |< _#

Back to comp.misc | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To “Jailbreak” Their F-35 Fighters Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-02-18 22:53 +0000
  Re: Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To “Jailbreak” Their F-35 Fighters Marco Moock <mm@dorfdsl.de> - 2026-02-20 16:15 +0100
    Re: Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To "Jailbreak" Their F-35 Fighters not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2026-02-25 08:00 +1000
      Re: Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To "Jailbreak" Their F-35 Fighters Jan van den Broek <balglaas@dds.nl> - 2026-02-25 07:43 +0000
        Re: Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To "Jailbreak" Their F-35 Fighters Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-02-25 22:21 +0000
  Re: Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To ?Jailbreak? Their F-35 Fighters Vanadium <administrator@pyrogen.net> - 2026-02-24 02:34 +0100
    Re: Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To “Jailbreak” Their F-35 Fighters Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-02-24 02:07 +0000
      Re: Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To “Jailbreak” Their F-35 Fighters kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2026-02-25 16:29 -0500
        Re: Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To  “Jailbreak” Their F-35 Fighters Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2026-02-27 19:29 -0400
          Re: Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To  “Jailbreak” Their F-35 Fighters kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2026-02-27 18:55 -0500

csiph-web