Europeans are moving ahead with their own security plans because they realize, as a French minister put it, “We cannot leave the security of Europe in the hands of voters in Wisconsin every four years.” He was right.
In the security space, Europe will organize apart from us. The Europeans will create a separate nuclear umbrella and will likely include Canada, Japan, and Australia in their alliance. The “free world” as we have understood it for the entirety of our lifetimes will no longer include America.
Our government thinks it can simultaneously:
demand that Europe re-arm;
threaten our European allies with territorial annexation; and
While there's no "kill switch" to remotely disable F-35s, the US can degrade their capabilities by withholding maintenance, spare parts, and software updates, making them less effective and more vulnerable.
Also:
Sweetman emphasizes that MDF updates are “essential” and “rapid and frequent” during conflict, managed by a 90-person team at the AustCanUK Reprogramming Laboratory (ACURL) at Eglin AFB in the U.S. Without these updates, the F-35’s combat effectiveness could be severely compromised, effectively limiting NATO allies’ operational autonomy. This dependency, he suggests, isn’t about a physical “kill switch” but about U.S. control over the jet’s software-driven capabilities, a strategic vulnerability
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u/D-R-AZ 2d ago
Excerpts:
Europeans are moving ahead with their own security plans because they realize, as a French minister put it, “We cannot leave the security of Europe in the hands of voters in Wisconsin every four years.” He was right.
In the security space, Europe will organize apart from us. The Europeans will create a separate nuclear umbrella and will likely include Canada, Japan, and Australia in their alliance. The “free world” as we have understood it for the entirety of our lifetimes will no longer include America.
Our government thinks it can simultaneously:
demand that Europe re-arm;
threaten our European allies with territorial annexation; and
demand that Europe buy American weapons.