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Is there any indication whether backdoors are added to sophisticated weapons systems like this sold to other countries? Given the complexity of something like
by WhitneyLand 10y ago
Is there any indication whether backdoors are added to sophisticated weapons systems like this sold to other countries?
Given the complexity of something like the F-35 it's not hard to imagine that backdoors could be addded undetected.
Could be anywhere along the spectrum from monitoring telemetry, to monitoring communicatatioms, to remote override of weapons and flight control.
- drdrey 10y agoPresumably said countries wouldn't buy said sophisticated weapon systems if there were any indications that backdoors were added. It sounds technically feasible, but the cost of getting caught would be huge. Besides, who needs backdoors when your software has vulnerabilities?
- pbhjpbhj 10y agoWhat's the cost of getting caught? If think getting caught has financial repercussions on the business whilst not adding a backdoor has potential terminal repercussions to your life.
- jasonwatkinspdx 10y ago> Is there any indication whether backdoors are added to sophisticated weapons systems like this sold to other countries? Yes, and they've been inadvertently revealed at least once. On mobile so I can't find a source atm but it was concerning some french equipment. It's not as big an issue as you might imagine, largely because nations tend to only sell military equipment to other nations that have aligned interests.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- SteveNuts 10y ago>other nations that have aligned interests. That seems short sighted since weapons like these can be in service for decades. World politics can change immensely in that amount of time. Eventually we'll end up fighting against weapons that we've supplied to the enemy.
- scott_karana 10y agoIran was provided with F4 Phantoms and F14 Tomcats while still ruled by the US-aligned shah. After their revolution, I'm sure a lot of people had the same worry as you! They haven't been fielded against us, though they are still in operation... ;)
- 13of40 10y agoThere were backdoors in Exocet missiles 30 years ago. What makes you think an F-35 would be cleaner than that?
- arethuza 10y agoDo you have a reference for that - the UK did a lot to try and stop Argentina getting more Exocets during the Falklands War (which is presumably what you are referring to) but I don't recall any references to the UK exploiting any explicit backdoors that the French had put in the missiles.
- pbhjpbhj 10y agoWould the French want to give the UK superiority in that situation, would they want to reveal their hand when not 'personally' threatened?
- krona 10y agohttp://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/11152/can-exocet-missiles-be-remotely-disabled-with-secret-codes http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/11152/can-exocet...
- valuearb 10y agoThe claim of Excocet backdoor rest on the thin reed that somehow the French supplied the codes but U.K. Leaders didn't use them, willingly risking the lives of hundreds of their sailers, for "strategic reasons", while the U.K. Was already in danger of quitting the war had they lost more key ships such as carriers or transports. And Exocets were "fire and forget" missiles with 3 mins to target flight time. They had no need for a remote control system once launched. They flew only a couple meters above the sea, and didn't turn on radar until half way into flight, making them extremely hard to detect until the last seconds. Super improbable that any backdoor ever existed.