this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2025
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[–] [email protected] 138 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The US can remotely disable them whenever they damn well please anyway, and can not be trusted not to.

Everyone should be canceling their orders immediately, and disable the remote access capabilities to the ones they have.

[–] [email protected] 81 points 1 month ago

Nobody should have ever purchased military equipment with that feature.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Has it actually been confirmed they can do this? I would assume they backdoor them, but usually backdoors are secret.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They require software updates for every mission, that are distributed from the US.

You can probably fly / use it without those, but you lose all the advanced command & control features

[–] piccolo 16 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Let me guess... microsoft designed it.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago

"It's military-grade"

[–] Brumefey 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

« You need to take off RIGHT NOW!Β Β» « I can’t . Upgrade in progress !Β Β»

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

Post on TechHelp:

"I keep hearing the missile connecting and disconnecting.

Has anyone got the latest driver for a Sidewinder AIM-9L?"

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago (5 children)

They don’t function without phoning home to a US-controlled server every 24 hours.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Give is to Empress, she’ll knock out a crack in no time.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Some high ranking US intelligence dude said something along the lines of that yeah. I dont think anyone has hacked into one of them to check or reverse engineer the code tho.

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 month ago

American here. Who cares if it provokes Trump? Actions have consequences. Canada helped out a lot during 911. What did we do? Prove to be an unreliable partner

[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 month ago (1 children)

With tariffs hammering F-35 sales, I expect the next Eurofighter project will have a lot more resources. I wonder if Canada will get involved.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Sweden also offered to get us building our own Gripens totally locally. The page for the bid is even still up

I assume we already have pilots trained in flying the F-35 at this point, which sucks if we're never getting them, though.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This would be amazing for us to bring back military building here in Canada!!

[–] HellsBelle 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Especially since the Americans are the ones who convinced us they had enough fighter jets to take care of us so we could/should cancel the Arrow. :/

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Absolute bozo move to not go for this in retrospect. They need to give this a look again asap

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[–] merc 53 points 1 month ago

Any NATO member increasing their military spending would be idiotic to spend their money with US-based companies.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Nah, y'all should accept delivery then refuse to pay. Give him a taste of his own medicine.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So take the planes, send Trump the bill, when he acts confused you tell him he should really be more grateful about this

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 month ago

"have you said thank you even once"

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I mean, without American replacement parts I don't know how flyable they are. Stiffing the US on something is an option for next play, though.

Edit: So, correction. Interestingly it looks like the US is actually dependent on others for parts itself, and Japan has a good helping of all the parts in the whole plane being built domestically, so maybe not all is lost there. (This link looks legit, but disclaimer that I'm unfamiliar with it and you can't always tell at a glance post-AI)

That being said, the software is definitely closed-source, and all their design.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

A Trump never pays his debts

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 month ago

The aircraft has significant security risks for sure and makes sense to cancel. But canceling the order won't be on Trump's radar unless it affects his inner circle of evil billionaires who have funneled dark money to him.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 month ago (15 children)

Goddamn right we should. Take the French up on the offer to build the Rafale here. Or the Swedes. And get a few demo units for short term.

Fuck 'em on any cancellation fees too. Consider it partial compensation for the ridiculous trade war.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

100% TODAY! Do not pay a fucking dime of any amount owing for these. (good job on Globe and Mail for a change)

FYI, the Israeli version of F35 does not have this "US permission for every flight required"

F35 is a POS plane, with low uptime, in addition to "broken ownership". Even US military does not get manuals on how to repair/maintain them and must hire Lockheed consultants to do the job. The whole program was a boondoggle to pay Lockheed the most money possible instead of getting good military equipment, and any corrupt POS that was involved in approving this purchase for Canada should be jailed for treason.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (7 children)

There's nothing stopping Canada from getting the manuals and patching the software. Most of the FUD about it's performance abilities is propaganda. So getting them and just locking out Lockheed and the US would be a pretty good middle finger too.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 month ago (15 children)

As should europe. Clearly you can't trust the USA anymore. What is the long-term prospect for spare parts?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (3 children)

From what I've heard you need a password that changes on the daily to start a F-35 and that the US are the only ones that can provide it. If that is true, it's a tremendous oversite for any sovereign state.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I don't think Canada should be basing their defense decisions on the opinion and thin skin of the American government. Trying to force Canada, in any way, to purchase F35's is fishy - not that that's happening, of course.

Canada's interests are for Canada. Not them. Also, maybe Canada should reboot their ventures into the Avro Arrow program again. That'll ruffle some feathers. Canadian engineered military = quite formidable, I think.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Canadian engineered military = quite formidable, I think.

Here's the bad news. It's not. Sure, we're good at peacekeeping, and we deploy to support (militarily) our allies. But we're using US gear and we're woefully underfunded because war budget has been declared a waste by even the parties who strut and posture about a strong military. We only needed to fulfill our NATO obligations, for decades, and even that has been a struggle we haven't won consistently with the low budget.

And while we're skilled enough and gung-ho, and our 1st Pioneers are about the most scary bunch of lumberjack commandos you'll ever see, there's just so few of them, and again their gear has been called old and out of repair by every administration campaigning because the last one never did a thing about it.

We're gonna need a lot of funding and training and gear to make up the shortfall in people and powpow toys, and that's a slice of gov pork that Milhouse is gonna latch onto knowing that he doesn't need an army once he gives the country over. Justin doesn't want to spend that, but he - and please God let it be Mark next - is really gonna have to.

But how do we sell it to the "hair guy bad" flatlanders steeped in 12 years of hating Justin for not being a pseudo-aristocratic milquetoast conservative?

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Canada should cancel the F-35 contract and their are better fighter jets from reliable NATO allies. The F-35 is a $2 trillion USD turd that is still not 100%. If Canada continues to purchase US weapons, this would be like Poland buying weapons from Nazi Germany. I am hoping the US MIC becomes pissed off.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago

2 trillion is a fuckload of drones!

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

ooh no, it might provoke the person who is back stabbing us at every conceivable opportunity

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 month ago

Hell yeah they should. We need to be able to defend ourselves against southern aggression, and the F35 is compromised based on what Trump himself threatened.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

The PM agrees with The Globe and Mail once and now they think they'll get two in a row?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (7 children)

With a potential for an american invasion on the table, I wouldn't want to cancel that deal without another similar plane deal lined up

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 month ago (2 children)

While I do not believe the US will actually invade Canada, I don't imagine the F35 would be much help in that situation. I am sure there are remote access capabilities to cease their operation, at the very least.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

While I do not believe the US will actually invade Canada

Until a few weeks ago I did not believe the US would impose tariffs on Canada or call it the "51st state," so...

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You have to enter a password to start up the F35. That password changes every day and USA needs to give these passwords. Locking a country out of the plane is as simple as stop sending the new passwords.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

Hmm, opinions on the internet on if that's true are mixed at best. It's a level of control I'd be shocked anyone would accept. Someone on Quora is saying most countries weren't even happy Lockheed Martin manages the supply chain and maintenance software.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago (4 children)

the potential for an invasion is precisely the reason you don't want the f-35 around. that warbird is the most technologically dependent device ever crafted for warfare. it is deeply vulnerable to an adversary with the knowledge simply bricking it remotely and you're kidding yourself if you don't think the us military wouldn't brick all of them. the better plan is to train with prior gen jets and asymmetric combat using drones.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago

Don't forget the Gripen. There's a great offer for domestic production still on the table, and it's the asymmetric stall-an-invasion fighter.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

Existing provokes Trump.

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