Trump’s controversial remarks about NATO, questioning member contributions and even suggesting the U.S. might not uphold its defense commitments, as well as the decision to halt the deliveries of weapons as well as the sharing of intelligence with Ukraine following the meeting with Zelensky at the White House, have raised alarms across Europe.
Hang on, I’m pretty sure that refusing to buy American warplanes is illegal. Unfair, at the very least. Some might call it cheating.
/s because some people’s children.
Portugal hasn’t even said thanks once.
Ooofff he’s fucking with the war machine. Let’s see how this plays for trump. Lol
The German industrialists thought they could control Hitler in 1933 too.
It’s fine, I’m sure he’ll be selling them to Russia before too long.
I doubt Russia would want to buy warplanes with a US kill switch.
Once this kill switch stuff keeps popping up:
https://theaviationist.com/2025/03/10/f-35-kill-switch-myth/
TL;DR: There is no kill switch per se (as in flip it and brick the thing), but a huge dependency on logistics, services and systems that operators outside the US have no influence over. That in turn will cause the plane - while still flyable - to be grounded over time as it cannot be maintained, rearmed and operated effectively anymore.
At the end the effects are the same of a kill switch
What’s the alternative? Does the EU produce fighter planes?
If the US can disable another nation’s military at the flick of a switch, it probably isn’t smart to order anything from them.
They already do. I believe the French have something comparable.
Gripen, Rafael, Eurofighter Typhoon
That’s just good sense. I wonder if Lockheed will have a mishap with one of their blade missles in the near future…
