Posted on 01/27/2010 10:05:30 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
A dogfight over software is intensifying as the Pentagon reaffirmed that it will not share with partner countries the sensitive code that controls Lockheed Martin's F-35 radar-evading jet fighter, according to an article published by Reuters.
Britain, which funded about $2 billion of the F-35, is among eight countries that co-financed the system. Nonetheless, no country will receive the source code or the vital electronics that control everything from weapons integration to radar to flight dynamics, according to the article.
The jet, known as the Joint Strike Fighter, can switch between air-to-ground and air-to-air missions in mid-flight, thanks to some eight million lines of code. The United States will provide a way for countries to upgrade the software as necessary without revealing the source code, Jon Schreiber, the head of the program's international affairs, told Reuters. "Nobody is happy with it completely, but everybody's satisfied and understands," he said.
Israel, which is interested in buying the fighter, has proposed technology transfer as part of a possible purchase of seven F-35s. But that is unlikely, says Eric K. Clemons, a professor of operations and information management at Wharton. If F-35 software is shipped in its source form, other countries might try to reverse engineer and replicate the capabilities of the F-35 in far more detail than would be possible from observations of the plane in flight. Clemons says they could even try to jam or hack an “enemy” F-35. "While [jamming or hacking it] is unlikely, the first two are near certainties," he said. "Not only will the U.S., but also the UK, have a stronger defense if the software for the F-35 remains unavailable."
(Excerpt) Read more at executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu ...
What do you want to bet President Obortion forces them to give up the code, since he doesn’t think defense is really necessary now that we have him?
I’m not very knowledgeable in how our fighter technology works, so why is the ability to switch from air-air to air-ground and back such a leap forward?
I figured the JSF’s main feature was enhanced stealth and a suite of classified gadgets which I figured were electronic warfare related. Reading this though makes me think there’s a challenge here I’m unaware of.
We will not supply source code for F-16s either.
Israel has already demonstrated that they have reverse engineered that one, and their F-16s have capabilities beyond some of ours.
The article does allude to this.
why sell any of our weapons system to anyone else... Why beside greed..
Your comment unnerves me for some reason. I’m going to think on it before commenting further.
Has this not been a long running problem?
I could have swore they were having issues over F-35 source codes a few years back.
It has been a long running problem and will continue if there is a “compromise”
AH, I thought so. Thanks.
There are several very good reasons.
It guarantees interoperability among allies.
It keeps our production line up & running. In a prolonged war this gives us the capability to make up battle losses.
It provides needed foreign exchange, and keeps our balance of trade favorable.
If we did not sell arms to our allies, non-US sources would sell their arms. When we get the sale, our arms industry becomes stronger, and non-US arms makers become weaker.
These are only a few of the many positive reasons for selling weapopns systems.
Allie lock-in and preservation of our technical/industrial base to build the next generation of weapons.
What an insult to our rock solid reliable allies in Australia especially, and almost as much to the Brits, Scandinavians, Dutch, and Canadians. The Italians and Turks can go hang but the others should not be treated like this if they helped stump up the money to develop it.
I agree
We wind up face our own weapons .. really stupid... We should not arm the world ... We have more important things to do than build weapons for everyone... or is it the only thing we can still do.. reminds me of the British Empire .. and it demise.
Zero positive to sell to anyone but ourselves.. zero ..
It is not an insult ...it is prudence. Reason being that even though an ally like the Aussies wouldn't necessarily overtly sell any crucial information, them having the source code adds another chain whereby loss/sale/espionage can occur. It is not that they don't necessarily trust the Aussies, just that it is illogical to add extra points of failure when the loss of crucial information like source codes could jeopardize missions and lives (not to mention the efficacy of the fighter).
Furthermore, even if the nation of Australia is a strong ally (in my opinion the strongest ally the US has), one of the people with access to the source codes there (were they to be given to them) may not necessarily be as trustworthy as the nation may be on aggregate. The person could be a foreign spy, a citizen who decides to sell the secrets for money, or simply a dunderhead who channels information unwittingly.
Then you have to consider some of the key secrets that have been lost due to allies - for instance the Soviets knowing about some submarine screw design due to the Japanese, and the various 'issues' that have arisen due to flow-through from the Israelis to the Chinese. While Australia hasn't done any such thing, and maybe never would, the sensitivity of certain aspects makes prudence an imperative. If you look at the F35 for instance, it's main advantages are stealth, sensor fusion, and the like. There are airplanes out there (like the SU-35 that is now coming into production, with some proposed variants even having supercruising engines and AESA radar) that can outperform it in terms of kinetics, as well as in the raw power that their radar can exert. Were the makers/users of these craft to get their hands on the advanced sensor fusion and far more honed source codes of a 5th generation aircraft like the F-35, they could be able to come up with something that would be quite lethal to anything that is not a Raptor.
Thus, I am glad that the source codes remain secret. If any of the purchasers require something changed an American specialist can go over and sort them out.
Does that mean the source code will remain forever secret? I doubt it (there were even some reports that some Chinese hackers got 'something,' but we'll never know what). Furthermore, there are many Americans who have turned traitor. Thus, we may very well see JSF source codes falling into Russian or Chinese (or British or Israeli) hands. However, just because that can happen doesn't mean it is kosher to go ahead and add ADDITIONAL possible points of failure.
You are a glutton for punishment.
We will not supply source code for F-16s either.
Israel has already demonstrated that they have reverse engineered that one, and their F-16s have capabilities beyond some of ours.
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We should outsource the source code to the Israelis since they are so much better at this. They have tons of genius level Russian Jewish computer engineers there that immigrated in the last 20 years
Greed may be involved, but it reduces the cost significantly to our armed forces.
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