Message-ID: <699e1f96@news.ausics.net> From: not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) Subject: Re: Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To "Jailbreak" Their F-35 Fighters Newsgroups: comp.misc References: <10n5ftl$32287$1@dont-email.me> <20260220161512.790aef58@ryz.dorfdsl.de> User-Agent: tin/2.6.5-20251224 ("Glenury") (Linux/2.4.31 (i586)) NNTP-Posting-Host: news.ausics.net Date: 25 Feb 2026 08:00:54 +1000 Organization: Ausics - https://newsgroups.ausics.net Lines: 61 X-Complaints: abuse@ausics.net Path: csiph.com!news.bbs.nz!news.ausics.net!not-for-mail Xref: csiph.com comp.misc:28255 Marco Moock 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. -- __ __ #_ < |\| |< _#