Posted on 03/14/2006 6:09:34 PM PST by blam
Computer codes row threatens £12bn jet order
By Francis Harris in Washington
(Filed: 15/03/2006)
Britain threatened the United States yesterday that it will cancel its £12 billion order for the new Joint Strike Fighter unless America agrees to give the Armed Forces full access to the warplane's critical computer codes.
Lord Drayson, Minister for Defence Procurement, issued the blunt warning as he arrived in Washington to address members of Congress.
Without full access to computer software the JSF could be ‘switched off’
The bad-tempered row not only threatens the 150-aircraft programme, but also the intimate Anglo-American military partnership.
Without full access to computer software, the next-generation aircraft would effectively remain under the control of the Americans and could be "switched off" without warning.
"I'm aware that the British can be accused of understatement on these things," Lord Drayson said. "We do expect this technology transfer to take place, but if it does not take place we will not be able to purchase these aircraft."
The programme is critical to Britain's much-trumpeted "expeditionary" strategy, which is based on two new multi-billion pound aircraft carriers.
The Royal Navy plans to equip the new 65,000-ton vessels with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), whose construction is being led by the US firm Lockheed Martin.
But Lord Drayson said that Britain had a "Plan B" and would implement it if an agreement with the Americans is not been signed by the end of the year.
He refused to offer details, but it is widely believed that this could involve the Royal Navy buying a new naval version of the Typhoon, or the French-built Rafale.
Lord Drayson said that talks with the Bush administration were going well. But the problem has little to do with America's government, which has been trying for five years to exempt Britain from stringent technology transfer rules.
A Republican congressional source said that the problem lay with the Pentagon, not with Congress.
The current US rules mean that British requests for almost anything linked to American technologies can take 20 days or more to get approval. British officers say that if applied to the JSF, it would severely restrict the aircraft's operational use.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, Chief of the Air Staff, who was accompanying Lord Drayson, said: "We have to be able to integrate our weapons, sensors, information and fuse them together on the [aircraft]. If we can't do it, then we won't be able to fight effectively. That's why this is absolutely critical."
whats plan B? buy a bunch of outdated French POS mirage fighters?
If the UK drops out of the F-35B, it will kill that variant. The Marine Corps order alone wouldn't be enough to justify full production.
It may even axe the entire F-35 program.
Seems like a necessary request.
You can't buy a warplane for which another nation holds the master key, obviously.
It will be interesting to see if the US Pentagon bends.
If not, France will be pleased to sell Rafales to Britain.
Then how soon till EADS "procures" this data and ends up in their military fighters.
hehe Jock Stirrup hehe
Physical possession of the aircraft would enable any 1st world nation to access and decompile an aircraft's software and firmware.
Thus, the UK is merely floating an official excuse to kill the JSF...something that we've wanted to kill for some great amount of time now.
Let it die. Paying Billions for manned fighters rarely makes sense in this Age.
Even stealth fighters are facing obsoletion now that Israel has fielded video-targeting anti-aircraft missiles (the handwriting is on the wall). Computer software can handle complex image processing now (both visual and infrared). So video missiles can hit the stealthiest of aircraft (because they aren't invisible).
We do still need manned fighters, and we need a few super fighters (that are likewise manned), but we don't need nearly so many variants of fighters as in the past.
So let the JSF program die, and thank the Brits for giving us a face-saving way to kill it.
Soon.
That's the price you pay for selling your technology abroad.
If you want to make the money, then you have to accept that other people are going to exploit what you made and copy it.
If you want the military monopoly on that equipment, then you can't sell it to anybody.
The British aren't going to let the third option, preferred by the US: pay the money but not get the exploitable information, because that leaves the British military subject to an American veto, and that will never fly.
Better to have good planes bought in France that are yours than great planes bought in America that have an American power of veto over them.
I can't predict how this will come out, other than to say that the British are not going to buy the planes without the codes. So, it will either be Rafales (or perhaps Typhoons) and the Americans keep their codes and planes and don't get the cash...or it will be the American planes, and the Americans will fork over the codes.
I suppose a third option is for the Americans to embed a deeper level of coding into the equipment, and give the surface codes but not something buried deeper. Of course that's the sort of thing you can use once, and then nobody buys your stuff ever again. And you have to keep 100% secrecy forever on it.
I think the Brits would be silly if they bought the aircraft without source code. Im matters of national survival, one shouldn't just "trust".
"France would be pleased to sell anything to anyone anywhere."
Yes, France holds commerce and free trade dear.
"Give us the codes RIGHT NOW, or... or... or... - we'll buy INFERIOR AIRCRAFT!!!
Wait, that didn't come out right...."
That is absolutely not true. We regularly export weapons systems with embedded capabilities that are not accessible to the folks we sell them to regardless of their ability to "decompile" the software and firmware they contain. We've been doing it for decades and we are very comfortable with the results. That is all I'm going to say on that subject.
"Even stealth fighters are facing obsoletion now that Israel has fielded video-targeting anti-aircraft missiles"
That is not new technology. It also assumes you know the stealth aircraft is there in the first place. Which is hard to do without some form of radar.
It's a matter of national security for both sides. The UK shouldn't trust the US with their national security and the US shouldn't trust the Europeans.
We must have an override button in case the Europeans try to use American technology in South America.
We don't need to make $12 billion on military technology. We give billions more away in foreign handouts everyday.
Let me assure you that 1st world nations such as the UK and Israel and the U.S. can access and decompile any and all software and firmware in hardware that they possess.
You would have to download encrypted software on-the-fly on an as-needed basis to beat First World, state-supported hackers who have physical possession of said software/firmware/hardware.
Um hmmm.....
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