"Depending on who you ask, Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II is either the most sophisticated weapons platform ever built, or an $80 million disaster that's too fragile for rain and its namesake lightning. What it definitely is, Dutch defense secretary Gijs Tuinman insists, is jailbreakable - "just like an iPhone." In an episode of the Danish podcast Boekestijn en De Wijk show, translated from Dutch by the Register, Tuinman suggested that the incredibly expensive F-35s could be maintained by European armies with or without support from the US."
"That being the case, he continued, "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." Tuinman didn't elaborate, and the Register didn't receive any elaboration. Still, his comments reveal a fascinating anxiety between US arms manufacturers like Lockheed and European military."
The F-35 Lightning II combines cutting-edge capabilities with high cost and reported operational fragility. A Dutch defense official asserted that the jets can be "jailbroken," suggesting European militaries could maintain and upgrade them independently. The platform receives routine proprietary software updates via an Automatic Logistics Information System pushed by Lockheed. European partners may own the airframes while the United States controls software distribution. If the US withholds updates, operators risk degraded capability or grounded aircraft. The arrangement creates strategic tension over maintenance sovereignty, dependency on US-controlled software, and the lifecycle control of expensive defense assets.
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