u/Quexotic — ɔiƚoxɘup

And I came here thinking it was World of Warcraft II.

I guess that's beyond the classic now.

I am now old *and* sad.

I would look at indie games like nobody saves the world and look for all the emulators and roms I could get my filthy mitts on.

If you don't have it yet I would spend some of that money on a few months worth at least of mulvad VPN. It would... Open some doors.

I mean, how else do you expect the present industrial complex to make all the money that it does?

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/

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.

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

Basically, yes.

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