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Many of the physical parts are manufactured in Europe under license. I've never heard of this as a major concern. The main point of conflict is that the US hol

Many of the physical parts are manufactured in Europe under license. I've never heard of this as a major concern. The main point of conflict is that the US holds the source code for the advanced software systems very closely, no partner country has access. A lot of the differentiated and exotic capabilities of the F-35 that make it attractive to other countries are in the software, everyone recognizes this. There are many algorithms and techniques that rely on classified computer science to deliver qualitative advantages. Even if other countries could replicate the hardware, without replicating the software anything they built would be a pale shadow of the F-35 in terms of capability, which makes alternative hardware much less compelling. The US knows all the leverage is in the software, so that is the part they strictly control. It is yet another case of the software eating the world, military systems edition.

Epa095 2y ago
I wonder how hard it would be to reverse engineer it, if it really came to that.
- Lennie 2y ago
  Might be a good idea to spend a couple of million by setting up a small office of 10 people to work on it in the coming years.
- jandrewrogers 2y ago
  The US has a bunch of (classified) tech to make reverse engineering unusually difficult. It is also several million lines of complex code. Different countries have different builds of the software, with some features missing, degraded, or disabled. There are also regular capability upgrades with new software versions; the production versions of some software features are roadmap items still under development. I suspect that by the time anyone was able to successfully reverse engineer it, it would be semi-obsolete, which limits the value in doing so. Playing catch-up requires taking a lot of aggressive R&D risks that European governments have traditionally been very uncomfortable with or which take far too long to execute.
secondcoming 2y ago
That's interesting. I'd have assume the secret sauces were in the radar and targeting systems. Maybe the source code also contains a secret kill switch? I'd definitely put one in if I was selling fighter planes to 3rd parties. Alliances can switch overnight, as we're seeing right now. IIRC the French refused to give the UK the means to disable Argentina's Exocets during the Falklands War.

Epa095 2y ago

I wonder how hard it would be to reverse engineer it, if it really came to that.

Lennie 2y ago
Might be a good idea to spend a couple of million by setting up a small office of 10 people to work on it in the coming years.
jandrewrogers 2y ago
The US has a bunch of (classified) tech to make reverse engineering unusually difficult. It is also several million lines of complex code. Different countries have different builds of the software, with some features missing, degraded, or disabled. There are also regular capability upgrades with new software versions; the production versions of some software features are roadmap items still under development. I suspect that by the time anyone was able to successfully reverse engineer it, it would be semi-obsolete, which limits the value in doing so. Playing catch-up requires taking a lot of aggressive R&D risks that European governments have traditionally been very uncomfortable with or which take far too long to execute.

secondcoming 2y ago

That's interesting. I'd have assume the secret sauces were in the radar and targeting systems. Maybe the source code also contains a secret kill switch? I'd definitely put one in if I was selling fighter planes to 3rd parties. Alliances can switch overnight, as we're seeing right now. IIRC the French refused to give the UK the means to disable Argentina's Exocets during the Falklands War.