Better buy European: Trump ‘kill switch’ fears grow over Australia’s $17 billion F-35 fleet
https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/military/trump-kill-switch-fears-grow-over-australias-17-billion-f35-fleet/news-story/befdd2f49d5ec3f51c5292681ebca5f4Open linkView original on lemmy.zip301
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Even if it doesn't have a kill switch, refusal to do maintenance, replace parts etc means that America will always have leverage over any "ally" that buys from them
More simply: even if there’s not an explicit kill switch, there’s an implicit kill switch.
Well put!
Yeah the way things are going I don't see how Canada can rely on the F35. It's way over budget as is. Maybe it's time to just walk from the deal.
What, you want your planes to stay in the sky, even when it rains? Picky picky.
"it's not a kill switch, but an asphyxiate button. totally different, see?"
It's a DRM.
That's what they mean, obviously it's not a physical kill switch. US just needs to stop sending parts to ground the F35s.
I reckon Australia should cancel all these expensive military hardware deals with USA. They're no longer a reliable participant in the contract. Write off whatever money has been paid as grift and be done with it.
Europe should just move toward drone superiority. A drone (even if in a jet form) can do things that'd turn human pilots to mush.
Exactly. We saw just this in both Ukraine and the actions of the Houthis. Human aircraft have become very expensive battleships of the air.
if you don't buy from us, we will disable your planes!
Checkmate canada!
Canada is also considering dumping the F35 for SAAB Gripens
That being said, we've already paid for 17(?) F35s so a small advanced 5th Gen wing isn't the worst idea. With the rest of the work being done by the much more economic Gripen
Man that would be so sick to see Gripens in the RAAF
Sweden and Saab are offering HUGE amounts of investment, production, training, and technological sharing if Canada chooses them.
I doubt it would be different if aus asked nicely lol
Spends hundreds of billions on planes that will cost billions a year to just park. Are we really dumb enough to think Sweden will not get rich off this?
And after we buy these planes, then what? Fight off the Russian or US military? They will be done by brunch.
I very much doubt the Russian military has the capability to invade Canada at this point.
It's all a massive waste of money either way.
If I were president of Europe, I would merge the FCAS fighter jet programme undertaken by Germany, France, and Spain with the GCAP fighter jet programme being undertaken by the UK, Italy, and Japan. Then use the resulting plane instead of the F-35.
But alas, there is still too much bickering and division between non-American western allies.
Even FCAS is at its breaking point because France and Germany cannot agree. Merging the two would ensure that nothing is build in the end.
It's because France wants a carrier plane and Germany have no use for it. If UK (carrier) Italy (small carrier) Japan (small carrier) join, the extra money for development could allow for 2-3 variants like the f-35, that would make everyone happy
I'd just pull Germany and Spain over to GCAP and let France do a Rafale with FCAS tbh. The French have always been a PITA to work with on military aircraft.
Never saw PITA in the wild before though I have often thought about using it but found it'd be too cryptic but, hey, you proved me wrong. French always are a PITA whatever subject they address
Except they are right an annoying amount of the time. Nato skepticism, nuclear power, etc.
Being correct and PITA are not mutually exclusive.
And this, Sir, is proverbial.
Nah the UK is in the US bloc, you want to keep arms manufacturing separate from them as the US can lean on them. I hate to say it but that's the truth here, the UK has shown no metal to dissuade such a presumption either.
With Trump's recent ambitions regarding a seizure of European land, maybe more Brits will now recognise that reliance on the US isn't a great idea
The F35s don't even work, they sat grounded on a software issue for almost two years.
"Buy from us, the country threatening to kill the machinery that you bought from us, and to annex your lands".
"Australia got its anticircumvention law through the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement, which obliges Australia to enact anticircumvention law."
The alternative was tariffs. Well, I don't know if you've heard, but we've got tariffs now! ... what about repealing anticircumvention law?" --Cory Doctorow https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/01/39c3/#the-new-coalition