Comment on How can a military buy fighter jets that the seller has kill switches for?
NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I am very sure that it is true.
Not only such primitve things as a kill switch - because nobody can make any profit directly from deactivating a device - but also lots of dependencies from the manufacturers and from the Usa, for the supply of ammunition, materials, spare parts etc. The same idea that we know as “vendor lock-in” in lots of consumer products.
Hjalamanger@feddit.nu 1 month ago
I’m not so sure. From a software perspective adding a kill switch is needlessly adding a potential vulnerability. Given that (as many others have said) the planes will need spare parts and software updates anyways I see it as quite unlikely that there would be an kill switch.
NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Of course they would test against all imaginable vulnerabilities. It is a weapon after all.
And of course they would make all the needed software tests in a safe environment where the switch doesn’t really destroy things.
As I said, no direct profit from the kill switch. But the possibility of indirect profit: for every destroyed weapon, there is the potential to sell a new one later.