Summary
European nations refute claims that the U.S. has a “kill switch” for F-35 fighter jets, despite concerns raised after Trump suspended military aid and intelligence support to Ukraine.
While no evidence confirms such a switch, experts warn the U.S. could limit access to crucial software updates.
Belgium and Switzerland assert their F-35s remain autonomous but acknowledge reliance on U.S. data systems.
Set to receive 35 F-35s in 2026, some German politicians are questioning whether the purchase should have been made amid these concerns.
That goes both ways though. Not every part of an F35 is made in the US. In fact, the supply chain is pretty spread out over a dozen countries.
Oh, I know. That’s the funny part.
And it’s deeper than that. Our military industrial complex has a SHITLOAD of customers in Europe by virtue of NATO system integration. I predict that American defense companies aren’t going to be winning any contracts amongst our (former?) allies for the foreseeable future. I furthermore predict that more than a few nations will eventually drop existing deals if we continue to be a massive dick to everyone - and we will, unfortunately, continue to be a massive dick to everyone.
Idk maybe we’ll start selling shit to Russia…? That would be fucking wild. But I honestly wouldn’t put it past Trump, and congress is some combination of enthusiastically fascistic, abysmally stupid, or deeply, fundamentally, fecklessly useless, so I don’t expect they’ll actually stand up to pressure from our new dictator once push comes to shove.
I sometimes wonder now if the plan is to stop having allies, and instead just make an American version of Wagner. Privatised American military fights for the highest bidder, buys lots of material from the American MIC, makes the world a worse place but makes a lot of money of it. I doubt it would be more profitable than a permanent inflow of 2% of the yearly GDP from several of the richest countries in the world, but I wouldn’t put it past them to think that it would be.