• @[email protected]
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    514 days ago

    Not sure, if we can completely replace US weapons, including jets and so on, already.

    I guess, that much will be spend at European companies, but I’m pretty sure a bulk will go the the USA military industry
    and maybe also other countries - I’m not really up-to-date with current military capabilities and production facilities in Europe or worldwide

    Maybe someone more knowledgeable could chime in

    • @[email protected]
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      13 days ago

      To my understanding, EU countries aren’t in a shortage of aircraft - their air power is enough to match Russia. However, they are in a shortage of bombs to drop and missiles to fire.

      They’re also in a shortage of artillery and rocket artillery and air defense.

      As for the industry that can be scaled up fastest (drones), everyone is in a shortage of them. Fortunately there is one country in Europe that’s been doing absolutely everything to scale up their production. So much that it currently out-produces the US, and maybe out-produces both the US and the EU. I’m fairly certain that this country is willing to help on the matter (it’s called Ukraine).

      • @[email protected]
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        111 days ago

        Are we still enough equipped, when we throw out all the American jets, the USA can just disable remotely (or at least don’t give us the codes to start - actually I’m not entirely sure, what the reality here is, but it seems the USA has some say in the usage of our fighter jets, when they are bought from the USA)?

        I’d really like to find some comfort in your words, but all the shit I read doesn’t look pretty for us in Europe

        • @[email protected]
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          11 days ago

          I have not yet heard of a single case report of US-sourced military jet becoming remotely disabled.

          Also note: Iran has been flying F-14 jets which the Islamic Revolution took over from the Shah’s regime.

          When a country buys military aircraft, they demand extensive knowledge of the system they are buying, and demand ability to independently perform maintenance.

          If they are prudent, they will review all its wireless reception and transmission capabilities, possibly on their own. There may still be a possibility for a logic bomb somewhere, but a logic bomb in flight softtware would ordinarily mean two things:

          • the industrial company involved pays obscene compensations
          • nobody will purchase aircraft from the country involved

          These are pretty big disincentives.

          P.S. Cryptography: one can likely configure an aircraft so that it won’t accept a message through its data link system, unless the message authenticates and decrypts. Subsequently, one can change keys to no longer match a compromised ally’s keys. As a result, direct data links would no longer be possible with planes of that compromised ally. So introducing a specially crafted message into a military plane would likely be hard.

          • @[email protected]
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            210 days ago

            Thanks!
            I’m basing all my stuff only on hearsay, so I actually have no clue, and always wondered, how this way of acquiring defense weapons can work out, if I have to rely on my salesman in case I actually need them.

            I hope you’re correct, but that gives me at least some calm - thanks.

    • @[email protected]
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      413 days ago

      Jets? The Eurofighter is made by European companies only.

      Especially France has some leading Jet / Air combat companies.

      Italys Leonardo is leading for combat Helicopters

      For ground forces Germans Rheinmetall produces some good tanks.

      The UK is also not too weak but it’s ties to the US are a bit too strong… (BAE Systems gets tons of money from the US and I personally wouldn’t be too sure if they would choose the UK over the US if they had to)

      • Skua
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        213 days ago

        If it’s any reassurance, leader of the UK Trump fan club Nigel Farage is getting shit from even the Conservatives for defending Trump’s tantrum during Zelenskyy’s visit

      • @[email protected]
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        111 days ago

        Yeah, we seem to have so good stuff

        But I’m worried about all the money we already put into foreign/USA hardware, especially jets, as it seems that the USA has some kind of remote control of the actual operational status of the craft we bought from them.

        So I’m worried, that quite some of our EU nations spend money on stuff, that’s completely useless in an actual war

      • @[email protected]
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        313 days ago

        Yeah, exactly!

        I don’t get how we can rely on foreign unlock codes (or kill switches if it’s the other way around), when it comes to our own countries.

        That is just so much bullshit…