I’ve seen a few articles now that US fighter jets have kill switches in them, so the US could just render them useless for anyone they’ve sold them to.
Is this true? It sounds insane to me, I’ve always assumed that countries that buy these jets have full control over them. It’s a gaping hole in your defence if you don’t.
I’m pretty sure it isn’t true and assume Trump misunderstood a general explaining gleefully that since the US manufacturers repair parts any country at war with America would quickly find its fleet inoperable due to the immense constant maintenance required for these planes.
But, the President claiming there is a kill switch should cause all purchasing countries to cancel their orders - if such a switch exists then there’s a backdoor somewhere in the software and the US sucks balls at espionage so China knows how to trigger it.
Turns out the supply chain for such a complex machine is in itself very complex. Some components are manufactured by suppliers in various countries formerly believed to be allies. This includes stuff like the ejection seats and some electronics that are made in the UK, parts for the wing sets that are made in Italy or inserts for the weapon bays that are made in Canada. Additionally the Netherlands currently houses the supply hub for spare parts for the European countries. It is estimated that there are spare parts to keep hundreds of F-35s in the air for a while there. The most worrying aspect certainly remains the software support, without which all the precious hardware loses much of its utility, even if there isn’t a master kill switch.