this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
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380
'It's Possible to jailbreak F-35 like iPhone', Says Dutch State Secretary of Defense Tuinman (www.bnr.nl)
submitted 21 hours ago by Beep@lemmus.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
83 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

A widespread concern is what would happen to Dutch weapon systems if the Americans were to withdraw completely as an ally. For example, Dutch F-35 aircraft are dependent on American software updates. Yet, Tuinman isn't particularly worried about this.

"The F-35 is truly a shared product. The British make the Rolls-Royce engines, and the Americans simply need them too." And even if this mutual dependency doesn't result in software updates, the F-35, in its current state, is still a better aircraft than other types of fighters.

If you still want to upgrade despite everything, I'm going to say something I should never say, but I will anyway: you can jailbreak an F-35 just like an iPhone. (Crack it with your own software, ed.)

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[–] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 6 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Possible sure, easy unlikely, knowing you got all the backdoors (for allies), nigh impossible. Only way to be sure is to clean room it from the ground up, not jailbreak.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 2 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Plus it's strongly suspected, and rumoured, to have kill switches, a fusible link that bricks the whole thing. I believe it.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 4 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I mean every country that takes delivery of them gets to inspect it really closely. The "kill switch" is that they stop providing you the software for mission planning and shit.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

If you say so, don't say no one warned you.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 12 points 18 hours ago

I'm not buying any, don't worry.

But there's several countries involved in building them and they also have schematics. You'd think at least one would have raised alarms by now if there was truly a kill switch.

The real real kill switch is ALIS access and parts availability. Those two things can ground the planes until a replacement system is developed and parts manufactured.

[–] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 2 points 18 hours ago

Why wouldn't they?