The Ministry of Defence has rejected claims that F-35 aircraft operated by the Royal Air Force contain a so-called kill switch that could be activated by either the manufacturer or the United States government, following questions raised in the House of Lords.
Responding to Lord Empey, Defence Minister Lord Coaker referred peers to an earlier Commons answer, stating that the UK retains “Operational Sovereignty/Freedom of Action to operate the UK F-35 aircraft at the time and place of the UK Defence’s choosing” and that the department has the ability to “procure critical capabilities to be located in the UK”. He added that the Ministry has a detailed understanding of the aircraft’s systems, allowing operational readiness and legal risk to be assessed before committing forces to action.
In a separate answer, Lord Coaker said that all equipment procured for the Armed Forces is held for defence purposes and “permission is not required from any third party for its deployment or use by UK personnel”.
The responses directly address recurring claims that allied users of the F-35 could have their aircraft remotely disabled by Washington or by Lockheed Martin. Both the US Department of Defense and the manufacturer have repeatedly denied the existence of any mechanism that could instantly render the aircraft unusable.
However, while the notion of a literal remote kill switch is not supported by the available evidence, the structure of the F-35 programme creates a more nuanced form of dependency. The aircraft relies heavily on US-managed support systems, including software updates, logistics networks, and mission data files, which are essential to maintaining its full combat effectiveness over time.
Sustainment and maintenance are underpinned by US-controlled digital systems, previously ALIS and now ODIN, which manage diagnostics, spares and fleet health. Without continued access to these systems, aircraft could theoretically be kept airworthy for a period, but readiness and upgrade pathways would degrade over time rather than being switched off instantly. Software control is another critical factor as F-35s operational edge depends on frequent updates to onboard software and mission data files that support sensor fusion, electronic warfare and stealth performance. While the UK can choose when to adopt upgrades, it does not independently generate the full software baseline for the aircraft.
In response to similar concerns raised in Switzerland, Lockheed Martin recently stated that blocking F-35 operations through external electronic intervention is not possible, noting that customers can operate and employ their aircraft “autonomously, independently, and at any time”. The company also said software updates are optional, with aircraft and weapons remaining functional even if upgrades are deferred.
In practical terms, the UK F-35 fleet cannot be remotely disabled at the push of a button. Yet its long-term freedom of action is still shaped by reliance on US-led sustainment, data and industrial support. That reliance does not negate operational sovereignty in the immediate sense, but it does mean that political or strategic disruption to those support arrangements could gradually constrain how the aircraft are used and sustained.
Kill Switch? No.
But no ALIS, it’s just a brick that flies and you can’t do much with it.
Exactly, the argument over a kill switch is merely the nuclear option of F-35 ‘killing’. While it could if it existed have an immediate effect, the true more realistic scenario is the fact that they would rapidly decline in usability without US support and permissions and over time would become rather progressively less capable than Typhoons and eventually almost unusable. Software, tech, interoperability, targeting, sensors, weapons and the coatings would all become problematical pretty quickly and their advantages wiped out leaving their relative inherent inferiorities to reach prime time. It effectively ties us to being cannon fodder to US policy making or ill equipped to oppose if someone like Vance becomes President who might not be as taco as Trump. Mere Clown or power crazed Tyrant seems to be a toss up in these worrying times in the US.
It could be way tougher than that. Égypte F16, for a récent exemple, was against a group in Lybia in the 2010’s. USA disagreed. The bomb, in a mission, did not leave the racks. As a result, Égypte used it’s M2K fleet instead and bought Rafale. Imagine, just imagine, where we are heading with Witkoff and DT making US foreign policy with Russia. Where will be Europés wings in this context? And what credibility one can give to the couple B61/F35.
It’s not ALIS that is the issue, Israel operates without ALIS. It’s the mission data files that is the real issue. Apparently the UK and Israel are the only countries able to update the mission files independently.
Israel uses an over lay software over the F35 operating system to essentially bypass much of the integration issues. However they no doubt loose massive amounts of functionality for this.
If the US does cut the UK off from the F35 then it’s likely the US production program will come to a complete halt. The F35 would have to be completely redesigned just to replace the ejector seat and the F35B would cease to be without Rolls Royce.
As the F35 is now being sold to everyone in the Middle East and it’s no longer cutting edge I think you will increasingly see an open source on the source code like other aircraft allowing partners to develop it.
F35 independence is probably the least of our concerns in a fall out with the USA. Trident is a much bigger issue.
Good points on F35 which is about 30% made in Europe.
Trident D5 stocks are sufficient for UK to be independent of the United States shared maintenance facility in GA, USA. Naturally the specifics are secret, however it’s the obvious requirement for independent Nuclear deterrent.
It’s in the US national security interest for independent Nuclear Powers in Europe to complicate the scenario for potential aggressors, so not likely to change.
We can’t ’go It alone’ on Trident.
Written in very clear letters on the missiles is ‘Property of the United States Navy’.
We’re as ‘independent’ as they allow us. They ask for them back, which they can, ENDEX.
Ditto the warheads, notionally ours, but reliant on US supplied components for servicing.
Yes we can, we build our own nucleur warheads at Aldermaston. Trident is the delivery mechanism. We build a new delivery mechanism which is more reliable than Trident and the UK has its own deployable ICBM’s.
Human beings are disgusting creatures, with a first for greed and power. Trump has shown his hand and still the masses are brainwashed by US propaganda. Until this is eradicated no-one will live in peace.
No wonder so many people hate the west. Being in bed with the US will ultimately destroy this country and our “masters”. US hegemony is a sinking ship.
About the most accurate post I have read on here for months. The idiot Trump showed his hand with Greenland, then his insult towards European troops in The Gan.
Dependence on the US for any nations defence kit must become a thing of the past. For us particularly. Frankly? We collectively need to accept the “bromance” illusion is dead, the US is in decline and is actually making the world a more dangerous place.
Yes we can, we build our own nucleur warheads at Aldermaston. Trident is the delivery mechanism. We build a new delivery mechanism which is more reliable than Trident and the UK has its own deployable ICBM’s.
Human beings are disgusting creatures, with a first for greed and power. Trump has shown his hand and still the masses are brainwashed by US propaganda. Until this is eradicated no-one will live in peace.
No wonder so many people hate the west. Being in bed with the US will ultimately destroy this country and our “masters”. US hegemony is a sinking ship.
The only reason the UK are puppets is because everyone believes the narrative.
Yet they just ruled out creating a new launch platform of our own because we are run by subservients and not leaders.
The IDF has a unique dispensation to wrote into the F-35 code, we don’t. So we are sitting on our hands hoping the US integrates UK weapons – eventually.
The IDF has immense functionality – they act as the de facto weapons free test site for LM and the US DoD. It’s really rather useful to test ‘best of the west’ systems in a live fire environment against Russian and Chinese systems.
F35B? Once current orders are fulfilled, LM will kill it. Even the USMC has swapped some F-35B builds for F-35C. The RAF sees that writing on that wall, see its jumping into the F-35A bed.
The Boondoggle carries on. Sovereignty a distant dream.
No need. You can just sever the supply chain and support.
All the more reason to buy more Typhoons Trance 5
It’s a fool’s errand buying “fourth generation military aircraft” now.
It would be a waste of money which the U.K. cannot afford.
So absolutely no more Typhoons.
And yet every other military significant country is busily buying 4th gen aircraft. I can’t think of one that is not.
Our problem is mass not capabilities. We need basic DCA as well as CAS.
That might mean retaining Tranche 1 FGR4s to do the QRA basics whilst acquiring cheaper platforms for CAS
Tempest is explicitly ITAR free
So why’s Labour pissing about and not signing the next stage of the Contract with the Japs and Italians…? They’re worried that Starmer might try and get Jerry involved if they hang about any longer, since apparently this DIP is delayed and affecting Tempest, but if DIP is waiting on AJAX decision, they might as well cut it from the document and move forward with the rest.
Getting the Huns involved will be a disaster.
Their SOP is
Place a large order to gain workshare
Demand changes to design
Cut the order but retain workshare
German tricks like this added 5 years to the Typhoon program
Isn’t this exactly what the UK did with the F-35?
Promise 138, Build 15%, buy less than 50.
We messed them about a bit around a bit in 2012, vacillating between F-35B and F-35C, but subsequent governments aren’t the ones dragging their feet on the F-35 designs. Had we been able to integrate UK missiles and not been waiting for significant upgrade costs for as long as we have been, I’m pretty sure Wallace would have pushed more orders through when he was in office.
Technically, we are still down for a programme of 138.
The US is suppose to be buying 2,866 and you have only bought 700 so far.
So by that metric we are closer to our initial promise than you.
The UK was not awarded any work share. It had to go through competitive tender to get the work it got.
The US is a failing empire and superpower. Now that Trump has shown his hand that every US president feels about the UK since WW2 (that it only cares about itself), its time to move away from the US. If we dont get closer to China now, it will come after us when it wipes out the US. Fcuk America and everything is stands for. We put America on its pedestal and now its time to detroy it 🇺🇲 🔥
You OK hun ?
Yeah im good, thanks for asking. Its the Orange looking goon at the White House that’s not okay..
Rant over 😤
Yep. But tbf the yanks can’t even supply them in enough numbers for us to increase anyway.
Simple, write into the contract that pulling out will still see the intended investment and numbers. Then the Germans have to fulfill its order requirements.
These things are never that simple. If you tried to enforce that clause there would be a whole lot of ‘why’ going on and that would be a collection of directional shifts by UK and the usual UK delaying tactics to reprofile [push to the right] the budget.
Germany has more delivered and on order Typhoon than the UK. Significantly more.
This article is a non event but your point is a lot more worrying. The delay in moving forward with GCAP is nuts, but then so is Starmer. He’s more interested in flying round the world with a bloody great “human rights lawyer” chip on his shoulder.
Because DIP is, in Starmer’s mind, a manufacturing jobs creation scheme. MOD is desperate to buy as much MOTS as possible as they need things fast.
Rachel is desperate for the opposite and prefers a bunch of slow R&D programs push any real spending into the next parliament when it won’t be a Labour problem anymore.
BTW cutting Germany in is *not* a good idea.
Never mind they don’t have any 5th or 6th Gen tech to add to the party.
It is more about adding the limitations of German politics to the mix. You’d never export anything. That needs to be speedy and reliable.
Japan and Italy want to get on with it. As they *know* that stringing these things out adds massively to program costs. And if you string it out then Type#1 is out of date by the time it takes to the air so Type#2 is require to update it. It also gives The Good Idea Club openings to start What Iffery.
Too slow in military R&D is massively costly.
What he said….
Given a choice, most VSO’s would buy whatever’s already in service and proven – ideally US first, but other options are to be considered. They are all too aware they all too often have to buy into a jobs creation scheme that doubles the cost, delivers a decade late and leaves them with not enough or nothing.
And then to rub salt – HMG orders the US kit they wanted in the first place.
Quote..”In practical terms, the UK F-35 fleet cannot be remotely disabled at the push of a button. Yet its long-term freedom of action is still shaped by reliance on US-led sustainment, data and industrial support. That reliance does not negate operational sovereignty in the immediate sense, but it does mean that political or strategic disruption to those support arrangements could gradually constrain how the aircraft are used and sustained.”
Do we say this about Poseidon or Wedgetail, C17, Beech Texan or Beech Shadow or Protector… and did we worry about the Hercules?
Now Rivet Joint really is tied in to US servicing… there seems to be one back “home” in Omaha (I think) all the time.
Exactly. A complete none story. Its like saying Italy, Germany or Spain could cut off Typhoon supply chain support or manufacturing. They all come with some risk.
Or Chinook? Or much of the UKIC. Or nuclear.
At it’s heart I suspect is the anti Americanism growing due to Trumps actions, which is stirred and blown up into crap like this.
I don’t get your line of argument: to be anti-Trump/ MAGA and their pursuit of an ‘America First’ might is right policy makes their critics ‘anti-American’? How about that makes them pro-British (or pro-whatever your own nationality is, Canadian, Danish, Korean, Japanese, French etc. etc.).
So, if a (very right-wing) Brit had been hostile to Biden and his policy of maintaining USA support for an international rules based order (unhappily, generally seen more in it’s breach than it’s observance) then would that also have made them ‘anti-American’?
This line of argument smacks of the same claims of being ‘anti-Russian’ you get from Russians when you criticise and oppose their country’s ‘actions’ on the international stage i.e. bombings, invasions and threats of annexation of their neighbours.
You sound as if you’re only one step away of labelling Trump’s critics as suffering from ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’, a tactic much beloved of MAGA cultists and Russian bots.
Hmme F35 is a lot more software centric than the other platforms are as it is part of a digital mesh.
IRL the other platforms could perfectly well fly sans updates for years.
All that said I agree with @Robery Blay that this is a non story as a kill switch would be a massive war risk if it got hacked.
No because they are not hi tech weapons systems that are our main deterrent like the QE class carriers. And the f35. It’s the carriers that rely on f34 and if the f35 gets gimped so do our carrier’s and also the same issue with our nuclear deterrent. E7 wedge tail is obselete anyway even the yanks said so. And hercules is a fricken transport plane. Not a 5th gen stealth fighter.
It would be interesting to see a half life for operational service of the fleet if US withdrew support.
Or we stop supplying the 15% of the end product we manufacture for theF35 in the UK…
BAE Systems (Lancashire): Produces the rear fuselage, vertical and horizontal tails, and provides key electronic systems.
Martin-Baker (Higher Denham): Manufactures the ejection seats for all F-35 variants.
Rolls-Royce (Derby): Produces the LiftSystem for the F-35B short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant.
GE Aviation (Cheltenham): Supplies electrical power systems, standby instruments, and aircraft health monitoring systems.
Ultra Electronics: Produces critical components such as the Active Inceptor System and actuator systems.
Survitec (Ellesmere Port): Manufactures parts of the pilot life support systems.
It’s non-story. And do you really think the RAF haven’t make quite sure of security of the software?
F-35 relies implicitly on ALIS – no access to ALIS, they become functionally useless in short order.
The RJs? We borrow them, but in reality they are USAF birds
The ‘kill switch’ is the blocking of ‘Software Updates’….
Reluctance to integrate non US weapons comes a close second, allegedly depending on Block four release..
AKA Block Never
Whoever came up with this kill switch nonsense in the first place?
Utter nonsense, you could say that for any piece of military equipment that relies on foreign contractor support. A very long list the world over, thus the power of the MIC.
About Time we stopped wasting money on pampering another 900 illegal migrants each month and start building our own stuff. But our governments sold us out for everything. Literally everything. Criminals. We are run by criminals.
🥱 Righttrash bloviating will surely fix the issue 🤡 Servile obeisance to the *actual* corrupt criminals in the Gold House is Reform policy 🐷🤣
However any operational restrictions would be the end of export orders so Lockheed Martin must be very worried about the risk to their business from the Moscow Agents Governing America.
Even the Lockheed Martin bias to new build rather than spares which impacts serviceability is painful for customers foreign and domestic, and that’s just JSF Programme Office getting roasted by Congress. So political interference not a decision by the Tangerine Toddler.
Journos taking a bit of knowledge and running it backwards.
Plenty of high end systems have either a kinetic self destruct or wipe themselves when an unauthorised read is attempted systems in case the gear is captured.
Journos after watching too many Hollywood films think there is a ‘destruct’ button that can be pressed to disable systems.
“Kill Switch” these are found on most Motorbikes, they can be used to turn off the engine instead of just using the Ignition Key.
It’s a Biker thang !
Lets be clear.
Unless you totally control the software you do NOT control the product – what ever it is.
That goes for Chinese cars or US planes.
The fact that this is even being floated in public is yet another sign of the gulf in trust that’s emerging between the US and its allies. Trump and a sizeable chunk of his countrymen don’t seem to believe they need allies, which flies in the face of increasing connectivity between everyone else.
No doubt if the USA does end up at war with China, or Putin ramps up nuclear threats, the US gummint will be screaming at us all to do our bit, forgetting all the bridges were burned.
The trick here is to sell them a lot more bridges.
London Bridge was a top notch deal.
(oh I forgot, you’re still sore !)
Sore about what? I’m so confused.
Don’t even mention London Bridge to Trump, he’ll rename it American Bridge and Starmer will give him a few billion quid to have it.
“Ting”
You’re a fool if you ever believed that the USA felt the need to have allies.
All it has ever wanted was vassal states and useful idiots, which can be thrown under the bus the moment their utility has been exhausted. Iraq, Ukraine and Europe more widely have had to learn this truth the hard way.
The Orange Man is simply the most explicit iteration of this.
My understanding is about 50 percent of the global fleet have the kill switch on at any given time because 50 percent aren’t air worthy let alone combat ready. The other question is if the avionics software is encrypted, would the RAF know if a kill switch was there or not? If it’s not encrypted,why the hell not. Surely that would be an even bigger gaping security hole?