The US is ending support for Ukrainian F-16s, but there is a way out — online.ua
The US is ending support for Ukrainian F-16s, but there is a way out — online.ua
Is it just me or does europe really need to partner on building defensive tech. Why are we all buying american jets when their capabilities are quickly weakened when the wrong president is elected and cuts support.
They absolutely do. Imagine if the US invaded Greenland. The Danish (and European partners) F35s would be switched off for sure.
The sad thing is, this would be a completely hysterical thing to say like 10 years ago but now it's a serious consideration.
Electing this dickhead once is a blip but doing it twice in a row indicates that the american voters actually want this, which is deeply troubling for Europeans (and the rest of the world).
Note: Iran still uses F-14 Tomcats.
Possibilities for implanting a logic bomb are endless, but there are still no case reports about an US-originating plane becoming remotely disabled.
(Russians would absolutely like to listen to a message which accomplishes that, meanwhile allies would definitely want ot change encryption keys on any plane which is supposed to receive that. I also don't think that military planes will accept unencrypted messages. And their communications subsystems are separate subsystems, which can be disabled or replaced.)
Meanwhile, in a hypothetical doomsday scenario, Danish F-35s would land (or be unloaded from a container) in China, and be greeted with cheers, red banners and golden confetti. Damage to the US would far exceed anything that Denmark could do by firing something.
Note: these are scenarios which are not supposed to happen, but dramatic loss of trust among allies can actually result in that - if country A backstabs country D, there is nothing that really prevents D from betraying A to C.
It’s certainly classified info, but I sincerely doubt the F35 has a kill switch.
If you have a kill switch on a weapon, that means an enemy can potentially disable your weapons.
One can argue that only export models would be equipped with a kill switch, but that puts the US in the position of potentially having Allied planes disabled remotely, leaving the US as the only air support in a conflict.
It’s far more likely that the US would simply discontinue parts and software updates, leaving a former ally scrambling to maintain their sudden white elephant fleet, while the US updates their own software to better manage fighting an identical aircraft that they know the exact technical specs of.
They can't switch off the F-35's. Countries can absolutely load their own mission program. They just aren't allowed to by agreement. If that agreement becomes useless for whatever reason then the country can just load it themselves.
France says hi
Sweden as well.
This is completely unacceptable. These Jets were given by European NATO countries to defend Europe.
This is a decidedly hostile act by USA against Europe!
And it shows that European countries need to stop buying American weapons.
Which is such a bangup job. The F-35 program was predicted on allies being able to buy it. Which they were in droves.
It's weird, but Trump might do irreversible damage to the US MIC. Not out of any principled stance, but because he doesn't understand anything.
The French learned their lesson here and its paying off!
One in a chain of many.
Switzerland is in the process of buying their F-35 and is now seriously reconsidering it.
Poland is also buying... But I am not sure if our government is smart enough to reconsider. They want to be nice to the Orang Dictator hoping he will spare them... Ignoring that lord Musk already started attacking them on twiXter.
Tusk would be smart to cancel the F-35 order and start buying European weapons. I believe the Polish Ministry of Defense was bought by the US defense contractors. When Russia does invade Poland, not IF, Poland will be in a shitload of trouble trying to get spare parts to keep the US shit rolling and flying. At least FB Radom is not compromised, their Wz. 96 and VIS 100 are well built.
That doesn’t make any sense, at least to me, as you’re in the EU, so any tariffs placed on the EU are placed on Poland.
Are we? We lost the initiative to stop the purchase, doesn’t that mean we’re pretty fucked.
Fucking trump the traitor. Goddamn.
There is an aftermarket for F-16 planes and their spare parts.
Also, I should note that Iran (of all countries) is still flying its F-14 Tomcats, unless I'm mistaken.
The most immediate effect is ceasing updates for then AN/ALQ-131 countermeasures pod. If Russians come with a new radar or make their existing weapons behave differently, this could have considerable effect on the survivability of an F-16 in a hot situation.
ceasing updates for then AN/ALQ-131 countermeasures pod.
" <<MISSILE LOCK>> It looks like your countermeasures license has expired! Please contact your dealer to continue receiving updates and stay secure against modern threats!"
Man this future is stupid.
I get the analogy, but it’s more like you have an old version of the software that can’t defend you against the newer fancier stuff. Continuous cat and mouse game.
A lot of F16 parts were manufactured in Europe as well, it was part of the deal to buy the aircrafts.
I've worked for multiple aerospace companies in Belgium and Switzerland that were manufacturing f16 parts.
The Ukrainians were already doing those updates for their non American jets, I think they'll probably be okay in that realm.
I hope everybody comes to their senses and stop buying US military equipment. We have good stuff and people smart enough to fill the gaps with self developed products
Russia will need to rearm after the war. I bet the US sells them arms.
At this point, every single European country should stop buying US made weapons and cancel all orders. It is a dam shame the Ukrainians could not receive the SAAB J-39 Gripen and more Dassault Mirage fighters instead of the now useless F-16. When will the Mirage enter service? Send the F-16 pilots to France for training.
