From: not@telling.you.invalid   
      
   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-d   
   ta-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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