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Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To “Jailbreak” Their F-35 Fighters

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  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

#28240 — Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To “Jailbreak” Their F-35 Fighters

Gijs Tuinman, when asked if the EU can make changes to the fighter jet
without US approval, replied
<https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/dutch-secretary-of-defense-threatens-to-jailbreak-nations-f-35-jet-fighters-says-its-just-like-cracking-open-an-iphone-in-response-to-questions-over-software-independence>:

    “I’m going to say something I should never say, but I’ll do it
    anyway,” the defense secretary said. “Just like your iPhone, you
    can jailbreak an F-35. I won’t say more about it.”

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.

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 ...

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#28242

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.

> 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.

-- 
kind regards
Marco

Send spam to 1771451621muell@stinkedores.dorfdsl.de

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#28255 — Re: Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To "Jailbreak" Their F-35 Fighters

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.

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

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#28257 — Re: Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To "Jailbreak" Their F-35 Fighters

2026-02-24, Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> schrieb:

[Schnipp]

> routine maintenance. But I seriously doubt that Dutch politician
> has any idea what he's talking about. If the Americans didn't

He's a politician, so he doesn't have to know what he's talking about,
as long as he's convincing

(But I have the same doubts)

[Schnipp]

-- 
Jan v/d Broek
balglaas@dds.nl

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#28259 — Re: Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To "Jailbreak" Their F-35 Fighters

On Wed, 25 Feb 2026 07:43:07 -0000 (UTC), Jan van den Broek wrote:

> He's a politician ...

He wears a uniform. I think he’s a soldier.

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#28252 — Re: Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To ?Jailbreak? Their F-35 Fighters

In article <10n5ftl$32287$1@dont-email.me>, ldo@nz.invalid says...
> 
> Gijs Tuinman, when asked if the EU can make changes to the fighter jet
> without US approval, replied
> <https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/dutch-secretary-of-defense-threatens-to-jailbreak-nations-f-35-jet-fighters-says-its-just-like-cracking-open-an-iphone-in-response-to-questions-over-software-independence>:
> 
>     ?I?m going to say something I should never say, but I?ll do it
>     anyway,? the defense secretary said. ?Just like your iPhone, you
>     can jailbreak an F-35. I won?t say more about it.?
> 
> 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.
> 
> 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 ...

Wasn't it a more adult thing to say, we cut our losses and in the 
future, we'll have zero trust on foreign weapons and specially with code 
that can't be deciphered?

I'm 45 and I never imagined when I was a real teen that the world could 
be run by spoiled brats and bully kids in old age.

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#28253

On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 02:34:51 +0100, Vanadium wrote:

> Wasn't it a more adult thing to say, we cut our losses and in the
> future, we'll have zero trust on foreign weapons and specially with
> code that can't be deciphered?
>
> I'm 45 and I never imagined when I was a real teen that the world
> could be run by spoiled brats and bully kids in old age.

Not really sure what you mean. If a customer buys something from a
supplier, does the customer own what they buy?

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#28258

Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=  <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
>On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 02:34:51 +0100, Vanadium wrote:
>
>> Wasn't it a more adult thing to say, we cut our losses and in the
>> future, we'll have zero trust on foreign weapons and specially with
>> code that can't be deciphered?

ALL code can be deciphered.  Most of it isn't worth the trouble.  But if
people wrote it, people can figure out what it does given enough effort.

>> I'm 45 and I never imagined when I was a real teen that the world
>> could be run by spoiled brats and bully kids in old age.
>
>Not really sure what you mean. If a customer buys something from a
>supplier, does the customer own what they buy?

In the case of software it does not seem always so.  And the problem is 
that everything today likely contains software.
--scott


-- 
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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#28265 — Re: Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To “Jailbreak” Their F-35 Fighters

kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) writes:

> ALL code can be deciphered.  Most of it isn't worth the trouble.  But if
> people wrote it, people can figure out what it does given enough effort.

Sixty years ago I worked at B.J.'s Foreign Auto.  This was when
"foreign car" still meant something.  And it was a college town where
eccentric professors and wildly adventursome students opted for a real
zoo of cars.  We saw belt-dive DAFs, Borwards, Lancias, Renaults,
Alpha Romeros, Mercedes, Panhards, Amphicars and others I can't
remember as well as the whole pantheon of British marques and many,
many Volkswagens, many of them decrepit or severely used.

B.J.'s motto was, "A man made it.  A man can fix it!"  And we did.  I
actually did repairs with hand-carved wood.  In two years, I think we
only failed to make the customer happy once.

Today, as an old geezer, I have to pay others to fix my car.  It
was made by a robot, designed to be made by a robot.  We're approaching
ubiquity of the "Jack up the radiator ornament and drive a new car
under it" method (awaiting only the reintroduction of radiator
ornaments for this single purpose :-).

AIUI, much of the code is already not being written by people.  The AI
industry is shingled way out onto the fog in a gigabuck frenzy of FOMO
without much supporting revenue.  And it's catching: companies are
being persuaded to fall prey to FOMO and get AI up and running any
place the AI companies tell them tomorrow's crest of big buck is
there.

-- 
Mike Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada

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#28267 — Re: Dutch Defence Secretary Threatens To “Jailbreak” Their F-35 Fighters

Mike Spencer  <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote:
>AIUI, much of the code is already not being written by people.  The AI
>industry is shingled way out onto the fog in a gigabuck frenzy of FOMO
>without much supporting revenue.  And it's catching: companies are
>being persuaded to fall prey to FOMO and get AI up and running any
>place the AI companies tell them tomorrow's crest of big buck is
>there.

I'm waiting for a box of op-amps to be made available to replace the 
motor control and body control system in the Teslas, or at least an
open-source microcontroller board.

You can already get a similar thing for gasoline engines, in the form
of the megasquirt engine controller.  Will retrofit into most cars 
with fuel injection.  All parameters can be set in the source code, which
builds on your laptop and then downloads into the megasquirt box.

Don't put up with crap!  Control machines, don't let them control you!
--scott

-- 
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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