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Comment by strooper | Hacker News Reader

I have seen the army in my country to emphasize on having total control on each and every equipment they have. They boast on being able to completely disassemble and reassemble all the mechanical war machines.

I wonder how that works for software heavy war equipment, such as F-35. Does the seller provide full source code and control (and probably training?) over modification of the software? Do they agree on the paper only that the buyer can never get to use those weapons against the seller? Or, do they set those policies right inside the control units of those weapons?

If the seller country have significant control on the control units of the war instruments sold to another country, and if the seller country is able to update/modify/ control/restrict devices over the air, won't that make the buyer country just an outpost of the seller country?

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> If the seller country have significant control on the control units of the war instruments sold to another country, and if the seller country is able to update/modify/ control/restrict devices over the air, won't that make the buyer country just an outpost of the seller country?

No. That would entail rather complete political control. Not just control over certain parts of the buying country's equipment. Still, it is clearly in the interest of the buyer to want more control over the equipment they buy, especially on such a delicate matter.

F-35 source code is only available to a limited subset of trusted allies. Mainly the UK, but it appears that a few other countries such as Israel have at least partial source code and the ability to build custom branches.

Doubtful.

DoD/DoE contractors and manufacturers retain a large portion of military contracted IP material. For example, CNWDI in the nuclear world does not allow a anyone in the military access/knowledge portions of bombs/warheads below the maintenance plates. Sandia/LLNL/LANL keeps a (literal) tight lid on that knowledge, much less the very physical appearance.

If the same schema were applied to airframes, it’s likely that Lockheed and NG retain rights to the manufacturers specific IP, which would include the source code to any avionics packages.

In the case of new fighter jets. Absolutely not. Other countries do not get the full packages either. There are some parts they likely take out or give them slightly inferior parts.

As far as I remember there was information released about the French having our backdoors into radar systems it sold. I am sure most countries do something like that but this time the for caught.

Unless specified in the contract, the US may not even get full source code for something produced by the defense industry for them.

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