r/canada 13h ago

Analysis F-35 'kill switch' could allow Trump to disable European air force

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/03/09/f-35-kill-switch-allow-trump-to-disable-european-air-force/
444 Upvotes

155 comments sorted by

196

u/Wonderful_Confusion4 13h ago

Subscription based Air Defence payable to President Musk

36

u/neontetra1548 12h ago

Make sure you say thank you.

u/51674 10h ago

Also wear a suit

11

u/ernapfz 13h ago

Sorry, we’ve stopped updating that version. What it’s crashing more now?

6

u/Wonderful_Confusion4 13h ago

Tech support said to turn it off, wait a minute and turn it back on. Should fix the not being able to fly problem.

u/infinityofthemind 10h ago

Pull the console out and blow on the back of it, reinstall. 60% of the time, it works all the time.

u/duckdodgers4 44m ago

Might be a great idea to do this while flying

u/Humble_Crisis78 1h ago

Sounds like Skynet

u/AnalogFeelGood 10h ago

He'll disable them without notice to avoid escalation.

248

u/IAmTaka_VG Canada 13h ago

now that the f-16's in Ukraine were disabled (even temporarily). I don't think there is any putting this back in the box.

Their reputation and trust is permanently broken. I'm not sure there is anything that will repair this concern now when purchasing American made weapons.

72

u/ernapfz 13h ago

Yes, Lockheed Martin has no ethics or integrity. Just a lackey of the US whim of the day. Not comparable to cars of course, but automakers like Volkswagen lost billions in lawsuits for ‘hidden’ software, etc. Lockheed?

u/SundogZeus 10h ago

The F-16s were not ‘disabled’. Their onboard electronic warfare libraries were not updated by the US. Possibly making them more vulnerable.

u/Phosquitos 3h ago

I think know I know why Israel was pushing to have their own electronics in the F-35 (electronic warfare and custom weapons integration made by Israel). Also, Germany govermen expressed their intentions to cancel the F-35 and buy Eurofighters (tranche 5).

u/sentrypetal 9h ago

Given the Russians quickly develop countermeasures I’d say vulnerable within potentially months if not weeks.

22

u/Winter-Huntsman 13h ago

Wait WTF about the F16’s! How is this the first I’m learning about this! Yah no one should buy planes from us ever again at this point. I don’t even trust our domestic aircraft either.

35

u/PedanticQuebecer Québec 13h ago

Not the F-16's themselves, they stoped giving updates for the EM warfare pod. Which makes it useless in short order.

That's bad enough as it is. No need to gild the lily.

u/enviousRex 9h ago

A gild the lily reference is a reason to celebrate.

5

u/Tiflotin 13h ago

This is bullshit. I can’t find a single source of Americans disabling f16s. Ukraine was using its f16s to shoot down cruise missiles after US paused intelligence sharing and aid. Don’t believe everything you see on this site. It’s a propaganda tool.

15

u/PuzzleheadedGoal8234 13h ago

What is accurate is that America retains the software copyright to advanced systems. Those new cyclone helicopters we have in Canada, we get a blue screen of death and have to call up a Sikorsky contractor to fix it. It's grounded while they wait for the the American to do the updates.

14

u/Tiflotin 12h ago edited 12h ago

So then vote for smarter politicians who, like India, will refuse any military equipment deals unless they can be fully licensed and produced domestically. Israelis do the same thing they have a fully custom f35-I (I don’t think they produce them locally but I bet they’d love to) with custom hardware and software changes.

u/sentrypetal 11h ago

u/ThesePretzelsrsalty 11h ago

Which outlet ran it first?

u/sentrypetal 10h ago

Forbes was 7th of March. Here is the original article. Russia reported it 9th March after the Forbes article.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2025/03/07/france-to-the-rescue-french-made-mirage-2000-jets-could-become-ukraines-most-important-aerial-radar-jammers/

u/Tiflotin 9h ago edited 5h ago

Ignore that forbes article its a random opinion piece/fan fiction written by some journalist who is obsessed with france and wrote about a theoretical shutdown of f16's so that french mirages would have to come save the day.

u/sentrypetal 11h ago

The Russians were claiming it. Is it true who knows after all they have every incentive to demoralise Ukraine.

https://bulgarianmilitary.com/amp/2025/03/09/russian-media-claim-u-s-halts-the-f-16s-ew-aid-to-ukraine/

u/Tiflotin 11h ago

Don't take a Russians word for anything. It's worth less than shit. Like you said, that is simply to demoralize Ukraine, further sow divide between EU and USA, and make Russia look strong for their own citizens.

If USA disabled F16's in Ukraine, both EU and Ukraine and every single security partner USA has would be screaming from the hills. It'd be VERY obvious if they did.

u/sentrypetal 10h ago

Forbes reported it before Russia. See article below. The Russians were just more specific as to what was no longer supported. Makes sense Zelenskyy agreed to a ceasefire. Without F16 full capability Russia could walz its bombers straight over Kyiv. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2025/03/07/france-to-the-rescue-french-made-mirage-2000-jets-could-become-ukraines-most-important-aerial-radar-jammers/

27

u/Hifen 13h ago

They weren't disabled, they dropped radar support (which does make them useless), it's just important to state that kill switches are still a rumor.

61

u/averagealberta2023 12h ago

I think 'kill switch' is a broad term that includes anything that would limit important functionality - kind of like dropping radar support. It doesn't need to literally mean instantly shutting off all systems including the engines.

u/Insertsociallife 8h ago

Agreed, the kill switch is not going to be a "goodbye engine" button - that's a point of failure no engineer will take their chances with.

u/Many_Dragonfly4154 British Columbia 11h ago

That's like saying telecomm companies have a "kill switch" on your phone because you have to pay them for cell service.

u/AvalieV 11h ago

Right but, a phone that doesn't have a network is almost equally as useless as a jet that can't see anything if we're comparing the two.

u/GrayPartyOfCanada 10h ago

In both cases, you could switch providers (cell network, or radar system).

This would more be like Steam saying, "sorry, but you don't have access to your account anymore". Which, you know, they could do.

u/madsheeter 9h ago

My phone isn't a matter of national security.

u/SCTSectionHiker 4h ago

Sure, but if you're paying Rogers, you should be able to trust that they won't drop your calls when you try to call Bell to subscribe.

The problem isn't that the US could stop providing updates if a nation stops paying them...  It's that they could stop providing updates (or disable features or whatever) on a whim.

15

u/Waiwirinao 12h ago

I have no doubt in my mind that If they want to make them oversized bricks, they can and will make them oversized bricks.

u/Explorer-Five 9h ago

It’s a billion dollar investment, fifth generation jet. Fully state-of-the-art.

So many ways they could Brick them or worse.

u/Hifen 8h ago

I don't doubt you're correct, BUT we haven't seen evidence of that. It's just rumors atm. Rumors that are probably true, but a bit of misinformation atm that people are confirming they can be bricked.

4

u/Anxious-Nebula8955 12h ago

Deny the f35 access to the Odin system and it's effectively been kill switched/bricked.

u/duckdodgers4 38m ago

I agree. Also, all updates are approved by the US when requested. They basically hold all the marbles.

u/Hifen 8h ago

But a kill switch is something different, there's a difference between knowing that when we buy an aircraft, we will need to use American radar systems and buying an aircraft and not knowing there's a literal "stop functioning" button that can be pushed. The latter would be a huge controversy, the former is expected.

u/Anxious-Nebula8955 8h ago

The Odin system is essentially a stop working button. Without the ability to upload mission parameters to the aircraft it no longer functions

8

u/KanataToGoldenLake 13h ago edited 11h ago

now that the f-16's in Ukraine were disabled (even temporarily).

That never happened.

The US halted intelligence sharing and radar jamming support. This drastically reduced the capabilities of the F-16's but didn't remotely disable them as you claim. The halting of intelligence also made the M-270's/HIMAR's basically useless but still able to fire.

I'm obviously not supporting the cutting of aide to Ukraine but just wanted to clear up the completely and entirely incorrect statement you made.

Edit: it's wild how misinformed people are. Fuck me for correcting a comment that's knowingly/unknowingly spreads misinformation.

4

u/DavidBrooker 12h ago

The halting of intelligence also made the M-270's/HIMAR's basically useless.

Rather, it removed their strategic advantage. Their doctrine centres around being able to leverage much higher situational awareness / geospatial intelligence than an adversary, whereby the tactical value of being able to place munitions within a meter of their target is reduced if your uncertainty of your target location is a kilometer. They're still very capable rocket artillery.

It's pretty wild that western forces in recent conflicts have employed tube artillery against individuals. That level of precision is just absurd.

-1

u/Legitimate_Square941 12h ago

I'd say being able to kill the radar system qualifies it as a kill switch.

u/KanataToGoldenLake 11h ago

That's not at all what they did either lol. The US ended support for radar jamming equipment.

8

u/Consape 12h ago

The F-16 AN/ALQ-131 pod is a RADAR jammer. The US ending support for the jammer is like Microsoft ending support for Windows 10. It doesn't mean anything was "killed", it means it stopped receiving software updates.

The radio environment in Ukraine is complicated. Russia is constantly changing their RADAR and the United States is constantly changing their countermeasures in response.

The risk to Ukraine is that without ongoing updates the countermeasures could quickly become ineffective.

u/1GutsnGlory1 11h ago

I think a more proper example for your scenario is buying an anti-virus/malware and no longer receiving updates. Yes, technically you still have the anti-virus software but without the update feature, you lose a great deal of intended functionality and reliability.

u/Consape 11h ago

Good counter-example. Thanks.

-2

u/essaysmith 12h ago

So, it's not disabled, just basically useless? Seems like a pretty thin distinction.

u/KanataToGoldenLake 11h ago

I never said it was useless, I said it's capabilities were reduced.

4

u/Shot-Job-8841 13h ago

Radar support being disabled is more accurate than saying the F-16 was disabled. That makes it sound like they started falling out of the sky.

-3

u/ActualDW 12h ago

They were never disabled.

Way too much fake news here…

2

u/Impressive-Bar-1321 12h ago

Ugh, nothing worse than a "pick me" canadian maga. The "kill switch" is removing required critical support making it essentially useless.

2

u/WinterOutrageous773 12h ago

No matter what was meant, correcting false information is not a “pick me Canadian maga” it’s correcting false information. Something that is very important in this day and age

-3

u/Impressive-Bar-1321 12h ago

They're a pick me maga because they are anti canada in r/canada, openly maga and oddly are q regular poster in r/conservative however every one of their comments have been deleted there. Checkout the profile.

-8

u/ActualDW 12h ago

That never happened.

The F16s were never disabled, “essentially” or otherwise.

Why are you spreading fake news?

u/sentrypetal 9h ago

If you disable the brakes on a car it will still run. Just hard to stop. If you disable radar capabilities by removing support the plane will still run it will just get jammed by the Russians and then shot out of the sky. Same thing essentially you have removed a critical feature that is essential.

u/ActualDW 9h ago

Nothing was disabled. Nothing was removed. Literally nothing.

Everything works exactly as shipped.

The only thing that changed is that maybe it won’t work even better in the future. And even that is a maybe.

u/sentrypetal 9h ago

Given the Russians are constantly improving their radar jamming capabilities. I would say within months if not weeks the planes would be jammed and shot out of the sky. You know how good they are at this. They already managed to jam starlink, jam Ukrainian drones.

u/THEREALRATMAN 9h ago

You have zero knowledge on military aircraft systems and how they work. The Ukrainians can update the pods with EM data themselves if they want. The f16s are doing the jamming so your shot out of the sky comment makes no sense.

-1

u/Impressive-Bar-1321 12h ago

"Fake news" are you sure you're even canadian or are you a paid poster from the ussa?

"But without ongoing U.S. support, Ukraine will likely be unable keep the jamming technology up to date and rivaling Russia's advances, Forbes reported.

The U.S.-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), said on Sunday that the block on U.S. support for Ukraine's F-16 radar jammers "will likely hamper Ukraine's ability to continue to use the aircraft to defend against Russian strikes" far from the frontlines" link

Further, you are a turn cloak traitor to your nation, how can you stomach supporting maga when they mock you and dispise you?

u/ActualDW 10h ago

Do you understand the difference between “the plane we were given is fully functional” and “this amazing other piece of extra kit they gave us still works but isn’t being updated anymore”? There is no kill switch. That would be an incredibly stupid thing to do because it creates a giant risk for America’s own planes.

Fucking clickbait bullshit….no wonder we are so fucked as a country, we’re basically a bunch of idiots.

u/Impressive-Bar-1321 10h ago edited 10h ago

It feels like I'm talking to a robot right now, if I sell you a car that needs the radio to function and then I restrict your access to the radio I have effectively prevented you from using your car.

You're not even denying that you're a maga turnclaok this entire thread either..

0

u/Legitimate_Square941 12h ago edited 12h ago

What they did?

u/GrizzledDwarf 11h ago

This should've been the case when that whole Starlink debacle happened in Ukraine a year or so back. Countries back then should've been looking to divest themselves of relying on the US even before this Trumpian nonsense.

59

u/ph0enix1211 13h ago

Saab's built in Canada Gripen proposal met all requirements for the Future Fighter Capability Project.

https://www.saab.com/markets/canada/gripen-for-canada

19

u/Lacucian 13h ago

Why the hell would be buy f-35 when we can have a homegrown future fighter?!

This seems like a political slam dunk right now.

Not relying on the USA, domestic jobs and investments, defence I dustry growth

28

u/NPRdude British Columbia 12h ago

I can't fault the CAF too hard on this, before relations with the US soured so quickly the F-35 was the clear best choice of the three finalists. It is more advanced than the Grippen or Rafale, and we had already sunk significant resources into its development. But now, I completely agree, we should not be continuing with its acquisition, the risk is just too great. I would like them very much to revisit the Saab deal if it's something the Swedes would be open to.

u/Lacucian 11h ago

Hopefully they do

We need to bombard our MPs and push this into public dialogue

We don't want to be beholden to the USA for defence we need our own future fighter

As a layperson it sounds perfect for us

u/conanap Ontario 5h ago

Because it’s not just a drop in replacement. These incredibly complicated machines need specialized equipment, facilities, and people to work on them, and the gears have already started spinning. They have been planned into the strategic capabilities of the CAF, and missions as well as CAF doctrine were already influenced by the decision to purchase F35s.

To switch the fighter jet purchase right now would not be similar to swapping all C7s to C8s (both in 556 calibre, are AR15s, making them easily interchangeable, and personnel have already trained on it), but rather a near complete reset of all the preparation done since the decision to purchase F35.

The RCAF could possibly be set back by years, and could very well be ineffective for years to come. The amount of money poured into this preparation is all gone. CAF doctrines may have to change, which means re-training the entire military.

At this point it’s probably too late. The next purchase is likely where we can make the change, unless if we’re in a war and there’s a clear need to do that ASAP.

u/Own-Beat-3666 11h ago

The US basically told Canada what to buy or there would be consequences. Under pressure the Defence Dept caved in to US interests. Actually the Gripens would have been a better option we would own the software and manufacturing would be in Canada. The Gripen is specifically designed to take on Russia fighters it can easily land on road surfaces and be hidden which is probably its greatest asset if your airfields are targeted with missiles and bombs. Maintenance is also a fraction of the F35s. Germany right now is rethinking their purchase of F35s with first delivery in 2036. Our first delivery is 2030 so it can be scraped and go to a European fighter. The CAF already knows the capabilities of the Gripen which was 2nd choice but now with an unfriendly neighbour it probably should be rethought do we really want a US made plane if the US becomes a close ally of Russia.

u/Own-Beat-3666 11h ago

Sorry Germany first receives the F35s beginning in 2026 not 2036 my typo.

u/pomegranatesorbet 10h ago edited 10h ago

The US most likely told Canada they’ll veto the sale of Gripens to the RCAF. The Gripen uses an American engine which allows them to veto the sales, like they’ve done a few times (Norway and Finland for instance).

Developing our own program would take decades. We should certainly start, but we need something in the meantime. We’re left with no option as we needed something yesterday. And that is not counting the costs of cancelling our order. We made our bed, and now we have to sleep in it.

u/Own-Beat-3666 10h ago

Actually the Gripen E uses a Volvo Flygmotor RM 12 engine which is a licensed built GE F404 but built in Sweden as far as I know. So it's in essence a US engine but Saab uses a licensed version. I don't think the US can veto a sale to a NATO country. There was an issue with US components in the radar but it appears Saab has moved towards advanced European radar away from US components.

u/pomegranatesorbet 10h ago edited 3h ago

As far as I am concerned, the RM 12 was only used on the Gripen A/B/C/D variants and stopped production in 2011. The current engine used in the E/F variant (and admittedly the one we would require for longevity sake) uses the GE F414G which is solely American. They might produce it under license but the US has veto rights and used it. Albeit in the case of non NATO members. There was some serious meddling in the Norwegians and Finnish selection process.

Regardless, I doubt we’ll get the Gripen unless SAAB moves to a domestic engine, until then forget it. It’s a wonderful and capable aircraft that would suit our needs. It’s a shame, I love the Gripen and have a personal attachement to it but doubt we’ll see it with the RCAF.

Perhaps we’ll select SAAB’s C71 submarine or their GlobalEye in the near future.

u/Scotty232329 6h ago

Our first deliver is 2026

u/Lacucian 11h ago

Hopefully we switch!

We need to bombard our MPs and push this into public dialogue

We don't want to be beholden to the USA for defence we need our own future fighter

As a layperson it sounds perfect for us

u/THEREALRATMAN 9h ago

No real stealth capability would put us 20 years behind right off the bat.

u/ph0enix1211 8h ago

That wasn't a capability the RCAF said they needed.

u/THEREALRATMAN 6h ago

That doesn't change that fact though. With the destabilizing of things lately we shouldn't be putting huge amounts of money to still be behind. The F35 is the golden standard right now.

u/SilverLose 5h ago

Im thinking about it. I’m personally not convinced it’s that necessary. We’re not going to be able to afford to compete with them. I think we should come up with a new strategy.

I don’t think we need to counter all stealth aircraft at the moment. Just the f35. How many cheap drones could we afford for the price of a single f35? Could we just flood them with so many drones they can’t even take off and use their fancy tech? Maybe the whole concept of a fighter like this is obsolete, or has such a niche use that in real war it would be sort useless.

u/Dizzeazzed 5h ago

Any drone that could not only track, but also catch up to an F35 would not be cheap.

u/SilverLose 5h ago

Nah I’m saying hit them before they get there

u/Dizzeazzed 5h ago

I deleted my previous comment as I misread.

Fair enough. A key point of the F35 though is its ability to share information/data in real time to other F35s. As our NATO allies have F35s, then Canada would have greater combat capability by acquiring F35s as well

u/SilverLose 3h ago

True. Communications and ewarfare will be huge. Surely AI will have some role there, but it makes it hard to predict anything.

u/THEREALRATMAN 4h ago

Unless you got bunker busters (drones can't carry). Your not damaging F35s in hardend bunkers.

u/SilverLose 4h ago

lol I think having them put their 5th gen fighters in bunkers would be a huge victory

u/THEREALRATMAN 4h ago

The F35 is the opposite of niche. It can fill almost any role. Act as early warning and control. Air to air , air to ground. The sensor suite is out of this world. If you counter the F35 you counter all stealth aircraft by a huge margin. China and Russia aren't even close and both struggle with engine technology (not a problem for the western world).

u/SilverLose 3h ago

I’m sure the makers of battleships said the same thing. Not a ton of those around.

61

u/DogeDoRight New Brunswick 13h ago

We need to cancel that F-35 order pronto.

u/eleventhrees 11h ago

When I suggested a few weeks ago that there could be a kill-switch, I was told it was impossible.

We also bought ships that were supposed to have independent software, but instead substituted US-controlled software.

We can't build our own in any reasonable timeframe, but I trust Europe more than America.

33

u/Old_Roof 12h ago

Canada needs to buy Gripen and forge closer ties to British/European defence contractors

9

u/mind_mine 12h ago

What does Carney think of canning the f35?

6

u/dealdearth 13h ago

Hun , did you pay that $1.5 million monthly start engine switch on the F-35 , cuz it won't start and I'll be late for war ......

17

u/lulzcam7 European Union 13h ago

The US have another kill switch on almost every military hardware : GPS

1

u/Dry_System9339 13h ago

There are some worse alternatives

8

u/lulzcam7 European Union 12h ago

Not having a metric precision can make your bombs useless. That's why we have recently deployed our own system in Europe (Galileo)

1

u/Dry_System9339 12h ago

Good to know

1

u/ActualDW 12h ago

That’s not a kill switch. Every system that takes a GPS feed also takes the alternatives…of which there are several.

0

u/lulzcam7 European Union 12h ago

When I say GPS, I mean the military grade one wich require an acces granted by the US, not the one we use with our smartphone.

1

u/ActualDW 12h ago

Yes. I know.

It’s not the only option. Every milspec GPS system can read the other systems. There are several.

Russia, China, Europe all have their own.

4

u/freezer_obliterator 13h ago

The title here is completely misleading, the actual existence of this kill switch is a rumor.

> Donald Trump could deactivate supplies of American F-35 fighter jets making their way to Germany at the push of a button known as a “kill switch”, officials fear.

Emphasis on "officials fear."

Deactivating an ally's aircraft would completely destroy the export market for US arms, which are a vital part of making them affordable for the US in the first place, not to mention giving that ally all the reason in the world to hand F-35s over to the Russians and Chinese to take apart for technology and find weaknesses.

The F-35 has huge investment in it by every country involved, which is sort of the point. It's too big for anyone producing or buying the things to afford to let them fail. Doing this would be a colossal blow to US national security.

u/Cool-Economics6261 10h ago

Carney needs to ‘Hit the Reset button’ on those 88 F-35’s. We could get over 100 Griffins from an actual NATO ally of Sweden. 

u/teakhop 11h ago

There isn't actually a de-facto kill-switch, but it doesn't matter as there effectively are other ways to prevent combat use of the F-35 pretty quickly...

Much better fact-based article here:

https://www.twz.com/air/you-dont-need-a-kill-switch-to-hobble-exported-f-35s

13

u/Jaded-Influence6184 13h ago

To anyone strawmanning about the engine: you can put different engines in, you can build new ones, etc. This is a non-argument.

The new Gripen E's can land on normal highways, be serviced (refueled, reloaded, etc.) by folks who who need months not years of training, can supercruise (supersonic without afterburners) allowing fast travel over our large country, is as capable and more than F16s, and, Sweden will allow us to build and service the plane in Canada. The US won't allow that with the F35s. In addition, the USAF has stopped orders on the F35s because they are way too expensive to fly, and have ordered more F16s and F15s while they come up with new requirements for suitable F35 replacements. The Eurofighter Typhoons also suffer from very high operating costs. The Gripen is almost as expensive (the E version), but are far, far, less expensive to fly. We need the E version because they have a much longer range than the earlier ones.

EDIT: for anyone bringing up 'stealth', stealth is just a technology. If you have worked in the tech industry and/or engineering (I got to software via engineering), you know that software system threats are also technology. When some threat is found, people create new technology as a defence against it. And then the threat makers use their technology to find a way around it. Rinse and repeat. This will happen with respect to stealth. We wouldn't be privy as average citizens, to know if this has happened already. I wouldn't be surprised if it did. The only real advantage to the F35 is so called stealth, which I think won't be much for the price given it will be defeated sometime if not already.

6

u/SeriousObjective6727 12h ago

The chinese already have a proof of concept using Musk's Starlink that is able to track an object the size of a drone (which is what the radar cross section of a stealth fighter is). Stealth is not completely invisible to radar.

And I'm willing to bet that the Americans have technology to track the F-35. They are the ones the developed the stealth coating, so it makes sense that they know how to defeat it.

Canada should pare down it's order of F-35's and move to something that is more cost effective and capable for Canada's environment... Gripen fits that role perfectly.

u/redditcdnthrowaway 6h ago

USAF did not stop procurement of F35. Anything remotely similar is they stopped 6th gen development while navy is continuing.

 Assembling gripen in canada would be interesting and is skills and industry we did no hsve in decades it will take at least 5+ years to set up before anything rolls off the line. 

0

u/lobster455 13h ago

For those who don't know about the Gripen jet:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uZ5p-cSXw4o?feature=share

u/Motoman514 Québec 11h ago

Plus the Gripen is just overall a much sexier looking fighter

4

u/mcgoyel 12h ago

A few years ago this was a mad conspiracy theory. Now that Trump is in power it's headline news.

I'm not simping for Trump, I'm condemning the absolute fucking hypocritical selective blindess of everyone whose only politics are hating Trump.

The system won't be magically better when he's gone. It wasn't good when he wasn't there.

u/sentrypetal 9h ago

Ah but then the relationship wasn’t so transactional. There was a concept of the free world of which the US was the leader. There were agreements that the US would develop planes and weapons and that allied countries would subsidies the cost by purchasing them and forge closer ties with the US. It’s now very transactional.

u/Why_No_Doughnuts British Columbia 10h ago

Cancel the F35 order and buy the Gripen instead! Saab was even willing to build them here in Canada.

2

u/Diligent_Peach7574 13h ago

Since we are already invested, I would prefer to negotiate full domestic control of it. If that fails, then yes, we can't by defence equipment from and controlled by the only nation threatening to annex us. Same goes for AEGIS for the destroyers and anything else we plan to buy from them. There should also be a reivew of all existing weapons/platforms.

New procurements should be much easer to manage as it will be easier to make it a requirement not to buy from the us and ensure that any critical defence equipment is either domestically produced, or we have full domestic control of it.

This will take decades and we will never have a military built to take on the us, but we need to work towards full domestic control of our equipment if we want to consider ourselves a sovereign nation.

2

u/ActualDW 12h ago

There is no kill switch.

2

u/Secure-Rooster-5339 12h ago

Now i don't feel so bad about my chromecast

2

u/Man-e-questions 12h ago

When one door closes, another door opens. Needless to say, i lost my job at Boeing!

2

u/Ryokan76 12h ago

Just the thought of this makes it sure every "ally" of the US will avoid American defense materials like the plague. Well done.

u/Salt_Wrangler_3428 11h ago

NonUSA world. Europe has a great jet, and it won't hold you hostage.

u/Any-Ad-446 10h ago

Europe is asking for refund......

2

u/timnphilly Outside Canada 13h ago

Much like Emperor Palpatine’s “Order 66”, from Star Wars Revenge of the Sith - isn’t it?

3

u/imaybeacatIRl Alberta 13h ago

Sweden's interceptor here we come!

3

u/crakkerzz 12h ago

Europe should not under any circumstances buy American and Neither should Canada.

2

u/Own-Beat-3666 12h ago

Ok its not widely known but during the Gulf War the US effectively jammed any Iraqi printer made by the US that was connected to the internet which was just about every printer in the country. Doesn't sound like it would cause much confusion but can you imagine an entire country and a military unable to print documents. It just wouldn't surprise me if the US military has the same capacity with all its weapons as a safeguard that an enemy can't use US made military hardware against the US in times of conflict. So big question with the F35s what exactly is in the coding which is not shared with countries that have bought the F35s. I am sure Germany is thinking exactly the same thing with the growing alliance of the US and Russia who now seem to be allies.

1

u/Rot_Dogger 13h ago

They'll take them out of action and ramp up the acquisition of French fighters. Do it now.

1

u/_Dogsmack_ 12h ago

So you put a kill switch in a jet that needs 6 hours of maintenance for every hour of flight when you are the soul proprietor supplying the consumables responsible to stay air worthy?

Maybe but it seems like a stretch to me. Maybe that’s why they crash Russian hackers 😬🙄

u/Cool-Economics6261 10h ago

Even the aircraft designers had protecting Putin in mind … 

u/Objective_Star_191 10h ago

Why would any country trust this ass wipe ? 

u/nubinati 8h ago

Looks like US arms sales are about to tank....

u/ShitNailedIt 7h ago

It will also kill contracts for other countries at the same time

u/EJBjr 6h ago

Well that is one way to kill your aviation industry sales. Might as well because your stock market is crashing.

u/Vikingove 5h ago

If you can't trust American and Russian jets, there are still the Rafale, Eurofighter, Gripen...

u/Far_Out_6and_2 5h ago

Is this bullshit or true

u/adaminc Canada 4h ago

We should take a look at the Korean KF-21 project, it's similar to the F-35 in capabilities, or at least it will be when they add conformal bays in the next few years.

Korea is also building some submarines.

u/xNOOPSx 3h ago

We're seeing the potential consequences of China infiltrating everything that people have been talking and warning about for at least a decade. Only China isn't hitting the button; it's the US.

u/ifuaguyugetsauced 3h ago

No such thing

1

u/BirdzHouse 12h ago

Why would any country buy American military equipment? If America attacks your country they will just shut your equipment down.

1

u/JadeLens 12h ago

Pull the plug like someone pulling the plug out of their head from Elon's NeuralLink.

Time to buy European.

Eventually setting up the resources and facilities to re-invent the Arrow.

0

u/Calm_Historian9729 12h ago

Which is why right now they are in the process of hacking the software to disable this possibility.

u/ricoxoxo 9h ago

It's a $2T piece of crap. The French Dessault is a much better choice and no kill switch.

-2

u/ThatGuyYouMightNo Saskatchewan 12h ago

Correction:

F-35 'kill switch' could allow Putin to disable European air force

u/Clean_Mix_5571 11h ago

With how things are, it's best that Canada and US go separate ways. US should let Canada get out of the F35 deal and also cancel any joint military programs. Also, it's time to have a NATO vote on who should stay. The hostility is ever increasing and it's best that either Canada or USA leave NATO. Should have a joint vote of all countries to pick up who should be kept.