Canada reconsidering F-35 purchase amid tensions with Washington, says minister

Yeah. Agreed.

Sane countries with coherent foreign policy release this type of messaging in advance of reversing a $70 billion dollar contract. The F35 deal is dead. The trillions of dollars worth of goodwill and brand damage Trump has done to the US is hard to fathom. He is like a category 5 hurricane crossing the US for 40 days and 40 nights. #UnitedStatesOfEmbarrassment

My understanding is that that plane needs to "call home" daily or it won't work.

I couldn't find the article, but found a more recent one that basically agrees with you, except on the whole replacement of the computer systems. That plane took so long to complete and had so many problems, im betting it's easier to design a new plane rather than reverse engineer this one but that's neither here nor there.

I think the largest issue is the over-dependence on the US military across the board which as you mentioned, we see playing out in the Ukraine already.

Do you think the EU has what it takes to rebuild fast enough to stand up for themselves alone?

I hope so. I'm not informed enough to know.

Correct. I did follow up today and read some more sources and it sounds like it's not quite as simple a story, but the dependence on the US military seems to be a significant issue. I found a better article with a more nuanced take here if you're interested in that sort of thing:

https://theaviationist.com/2025/03/10/f-35-kill-switch-myth/

They can't shut them off. They can do something like MS is doing with EOLing Windows 10 tho. No more security updates, which in this case means they'd over time become more vulnerable to adversary ECM jamming.

They could cut off a country from getting parts needed to keep the planes flying which is actually more significant. It wouldn't be easy, but a country could replace the computer systems in a jet. A military has it's own technicians maintain their equipment and they would understand which signals are needed from the cockpit to make the plane work.

The Lockheed Martin could shut down the planes thing is FUD and isn't convincing anyone in the know. The potential for cutting a country off from resupply is real, and the US has done that to Ukraine, a country in the middle of a war.

That alone should be reason enough to not buy it. I bet it's not even trivial to verify if that's the case which gives even more reason to not go ahead with the purchase.

Yeah you read a lot of things. Doesn't mean they're true.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14485007/donald-trump-f35-kill-switch-concern-europe.html

Basically, yes.

Can we add non-nuclear EMP weapons? Asking for a friend.

Watch us go from "you can't own scary black rifle" to "here's your annual home armory allotment of hand grenades".

I'd love to see if it wasn't "considers".

She's a lunatic, but if you pay her she'll still do it

Need empress to get on this.

It is insane that anyone buys F35's with DRM

Hmm, looks like it's still running the locked US codebase but they were allowed to install their own electronic addons to it.

Nope

Didn't Israel get access to the code as part of their contract?

Kinda wish we had asked for the same thing now...

It’s a part of the software, which is a classified black box only the US sees into.

Frankly, i think *buying* military equipment is stupid from the outset. Buy the designs if you *really* gotta have a third party design, but a government should be the sole hand in all of its most important programs/functions. It's like private healthcare or private infrastructure, it's too important to leave in the hands of a bad economic system.

It's still buying proprietary tech from an enemy. It's fucking stupid.

They weren't even solid state!

The Migs aren't always online, controlled by a cloud.

This would be like the US buying MiGs during the cold war.

because they have AI!

I feel like Canada has smart enough engineers to fix that issue.

Why would we want brickable planes from an aggressor?

Not continuing to buy aircraft from a country whose current leader threatens with hostile action seems only 100% reasonable.

I would advise them to keep the ones they have, though - given their current threat model, until the US president changes, they need a "red team" to practise against.

Fuck DRM

Shouldn't even be up for consideration at this point. Buy jets from trustworthy people (like EU), and if you want total defense independence start building the framework to build Canadian jets for when these ones approach EoL.

Canada needs to redirect most of its defence spending to asymmetric warfare. You know, the same advice US consultants give to Taiwan to make a PRC occupation more expensive to contemplate. Forget about big ticket items meant to support the US in its overseas wars; start investing in mines, guerilla equipment, etc.

I read that it's trivially easy for the US to remotely disable those planes. Seems like a security concern to use them.

Gripens! You love to see it.

Time to look into purchasing Swedish National Bonds, 'cause those Grippens will be grippin.

Maybe they can get in on BAE Systems Tempest and help to push things forward.

I'd try and join one of the two European projects for a sixth gen fighter the main ones being Bae (Tempest) or Dassault/Airbus (FCAS).

Idk about this.

We wasted millions on jets that didn't work before and got nothing in return. This could be another form of funneling money upwards.

Can the US shut down the planes from afar? Why would Canada submit to this purchase if that is a factor?