I’ve seen a few articles now that US fighter jets have kill switches in them, so the US could just render them useless for anyone they’ve sold them to.
Is this true? It sounds insane to me, I’ve always assumed that countries that buy these jets have full control over them. It’s a gaping hole in your defence if you don’t.
I don’t know if it’s true or not, but if someone is buying military equipment from an enemy, they already have a giant hole in their defense.
With all the software, GPS, and network capability of modern equipment, there’s no way of knowing what kind of secret backdoors were put into it. Especially if the maker KNEW they were selling it to an enemy. Why not put GPS trackers or a kill switch in that only you can access?
Of course, maybe both parties were allies when the purchase was made, so they weren’t too worried about it, but a lot of those alliances are being tested right now, and I do fear that the US will NOT be supporting the good guys this time around.