Does the U.S. have a hidden "kill switch" that could deactivate Europe’s F-35 fighter jets? With Trump back in the spotlight, fears are rising that American-made aircraft could be remotely disabled—crippling European air forces overnight. Is this a conspiracy theory or a real threat? And what does it mean for the future of European defense? Let’s dive in.
Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKfak8fBm_Lhy4eX9UKxEpA/join
#militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis
#themilitaryshow
SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/RkQW13VB
Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKfak8fBm_Lhy4eX9UKxEpA/join
#militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis
#themilitaryshow
SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/RkQW13VB
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00What if the most powerful fighter jets in Europe could be shut down with the press of a button?
00:05For decades, European nations have relied on American-made weapons to defend themselves,
00:09but now a chilling possibility is sending shockwaves through the continent.
00:13Does the US have the power to remotely deactivate Europe's fleet of F-35 fighter jets?
00:19Some experts believe it does, and with Donald Trump back in the spotlight, that fear is only growing.
00:25A so-called kill switch could allow the US to cripple European air forces overnight,
00:30turning their most advanced warplanes into useless hunks of metal.
00:34Is this just a paranoid conspiracy or a real threat?
00:38Could Trump actually make Europe's F-35s worthless?
00:42And if so, what does that mean for the future of European defense? Let's find out.
00:47On March 9th, British media outlet The Telegraph published a report examining Trump's potential
00:52kill switch threats. It notes that several European officials believe the horde of F-35
00:58fighter jets making their way into Germany over the next few years could be essentially
01:02deactivated by Trump. That deal is massive. Germany is committed to buying 35 of the
01:07world's most advanced fighter jets in a deal worth over $9 billion.
01:11For context, Germany's air force has 584 aircraft in total,
01:15with 129 of those aerial assets being fighter jets.
01:19The arriving F-35s would boost that number to 164, making Germany's air force much more powerful.
01:26That also means America's F-35s would account for a little under a quarter
01:29of Germany's entire air force. Trump having a kill switch would be disastrous for Germany.
01:35With a single command, he could ground a huge portion of Germany's fighter jets. Or could he?
01:40The Telegraph itself notes that there has long been speculation about whether the US
01:44can kill the capabilities of its F-35 fighter jets at the press of a button.
01:48The idea of having a kill switch seems drastic. It implies that the US sells weapons that it can
01:53render inoperable in seconds if it believes one of its allies is getting out of line.
01:58Reports of such switches existing have never been confirmed.
02:01It would almost seem crazy for them to exist. Just one use of a US kill switch would be enough
02:06for all of America's defense clients to stop buying from the US. How could they continue?
02:11What army would want to fight with weapons that could be deactivated at a moment's notice?
02:15We'll get back to those questions later.
02:17But now the existence of the F-35 kill switch is still a rumor. However,
02:21it's a rumor that some in Europe believe to be accurate. Those include Joachim Schranzhofer,
02:26who's the head of communications at Hensalt, which is a German arms company,
02:30speaking to the German news outlet Bild in early March. Schranzhofer said simply that the existence
02:35of an F-35 kill switch was more than just a rumor. He didn't expand on what he meant by this,
02:40but the implication is clear. The US could flip a switch and Europe's F-35s would simply stop
02:46working. The claims have led several others in Europe to dispute the existence of an F-35 kill
02:51switch. Also in early March, Belgium's chief of defense, General Frederik Van Siena, rebuked the
02:55reports. We have no indication that this is possible, Van Siena told a Belgian newspaper.
03:00The F-35 is not a remote-controlled aircraft. The program relies on worldwide logistical support,
03:06with spare parts circulating between user countries. The Swiss Department of Federal
03:10Defense agrees with Van Siena's claims. In a press release dated March 7th, the organization said,
03:15it's not possible to remotely control or block the F-35A fighter jets, for example,
03:21by external intervention in the electronics. Switzerland does not need consent if it wants
03:26to use its weapon systems or guided missiles for its own defense. It can do this autonomously,
03:31independently, at any time. To add to all of these denials, the jet's manufacturer, Lockheed Martin,
03:36sent an email to the War Zone, or TWZ, to confront the allegations that a kill switch exists at all.
03:42It pointed to the Belgian and Swiss claims to make it clear that Trump doesn't have access
03:47to some sort of magical button that could ground the F-35s at a moment's notice.
03:51But the problem is solved. Trump's threats can't be carried out because an F-35 kill switch doesn't
03:56exist. Multiple European countries and the jet's main manufacturer have confirmed this.
04:01Unfortunately, it's not that simple. And to explain why, we only need to look at Ukraine's
04:06recent issues with an American-made fighter jet, the F-16. For most of the war, Ukrainian President
04:11Volodymyr Zelensky has called on his allies to provide F-16s. Those fighter jets, Zelensky
04:16believed, would be more than a match for most of the fighters Russia is using in Ukraine.
04:20They'd also be vital for air defense. F-16s are fast enough and packed with the right missiles
04:25to take out incoming missiles and drones fired into Ukraine from Russia. Europe eventually
04:30responded to those calls. By June 2024, a small alliance of European NATO countries
04:36agreed to commit 65 F-16s to Ukraine, with the first of those arriving in the country in July
04:412024. More are set to come. Considering that Ukraine's fighter fleet only comprised 69
04:47aircraft as of March 2023, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies,
04:52that would mean that the incoming F-16s would almost double the size of Ukraine's aerial threat
04:57that was all good news for Ukraine at the time. However, the commitment to provide the US-made
05:01fighter jets was made before Trump became president. Trump can't do anything to stop
05:06the incoming F-16s from arriving in Ukraine. They're all being supplied by European countries.
05:11However, his recent decisions show us that he is able to implement a kill switch of sorts on those
05:15jets. This isn't a switch that immediately deactivates the F-16s. Instead, the US can
05:20take more subtle approaches to make Ukraine's F-16s far less impactful than they should be.
05:25Trump did that in early March when he suspended military aid and intelligence sharing for Ukraine.
05:30The former was a problem in its own right for Ukraine's F-16s. It's likely the aid suspension
05:35would mean that missiles and other armaments Ukraine could use in its fighter jets wouldn't
05:38reach Ukraine. A suspension of intelligence sharing also means that Ukraine can't get the
05:43information it needs from its allies, so it can point its F-16s in the right direction
05:48when confronting incoming Russian threats. However, the most worrying thing for Ukraine
05:52is that Trump's suspension also halted vital support that the F-16's radar jammers require.
05:57These jammers exist to prevent Russia's aerial forces from detecting Ukraine's F-16s in the skies
06:02until it's too late. They're vital protective measures. Without them, Ukraine's F-16s are
06:07essentially sitting ducks. Yes, they are incredibly fast aircraft. However, Russia having the ability
06:12to detect them on radar systems means that Putin's forces can aim precision-guided missiles
06:17at Ukraine's F-16s, blowing them out of the skies before their pilots can complete their mission.
06:23Specifically, the European Consortium of Countries that provided Ukraine's F-16s
06:27tasked the US Air Force to program the ANALQ-131 electronic countermeasures pods
06:33installed on the jets' underbellies. That capability is crucial to Ukraine, according to Forbes.
06:38It points out that Ukraine began its war with Russia without any significant aerial jammers.
06:43The results were disastrous for Ukraine's air force. It had to write off around 100 of its
06:47Soviet-era MiG and Shukhoi fighters during the first months of Putin's invasion. The arrival
06:52of ANALQ-131s delivered much-needed protection for Ukraine's incoming F-16s, allowing them to
06:59operate without fear of immediate Russian attack. Forbes also points out that Ukraine's F-16s are
07:03capable of using two more American-made defensive systems, the Pylon Integrated Dispenser System,
07:09or PIDS, and the Electronic Combat Integrated Pylon System, or ECIPS. PIDS ejects metal chaff
07:15and hot flares around the F-16s, which affects incoming radar signals and prevents Russia's
07:20infrared-guided anti-aircraft missiles from reaching the aircraft. As for ECIPS, it can host
07:25radar jammers and missile warning systems that enable an F-16's pilot to avoid incoming aerial
07:30threats. Why do these systems matter? As RBC Ukraine pointed out in a March 9th article,
07:36the U.S. suspending its military aid and intelligence also meant that Ukraine's F-16s
07:41had to operate without these vital pieces of equipment. It notes that Ukraine has other
07:45options. France is currently working on equipping its Mirage 2000 fighter jets with electronic
07:50warfare systems before sending them into Ukraine. However, Ukraine's F-16 issues
07:55highlights that Trump doesn't need to have access to a kill switch to ground a fighter. He can just
08:00suspend access to the vital components that the jet needs to operate safely and essentially achieve
08:04the same goal. It's worth noting at this point that Trump has lifted his suspension on U.S. aid
08:09and intelligence sharing to Ukraine. But now, what do Ukraine's issues with its F-16s have to do with
08:15an F-35 kill switch? The F-16 situation shows that American-made fighter jets are reliant on U.S.
08:21supplies and services to keep them in the air. That's as true for the F-35 as it is for the F-16.
08:26An F-35 may not be a remote-controlled jet, as the Swiss pointed out, but it is an aerial system
08:32that's heavily reliant on U.S.-controlled logistics chains, maintenance, and computer networks.
08:37According to TWZ, every F-35 exported to a European country is subject to strict American
08:43controls and is dependent, in operation-critical ways, on support provided by the U.S. government
08:49and the contractors responsible for building the aircraft and its many support systems.
08:53As TWZ's Tyler Rogoway wrote on X in the wake of reports of the kill switch threats,
08:58you don't need a kill switch to severely hamper the utility of an exported weapons system.
09:03You just stop providing support for it and it will wither away, some systems very quickly.
09:07The more advanced, the faster the degradation. The F-35 is the world's most advanced fighter
09:13jet, meaning the withering will be almost instant. Making this worse for Europe is that the jet was
09:17conceived as a joint platform. Though it's American-made, it exists precisely because
09:22the U.S. worked alongside its NATO allies to make the project possible. The F-35 is the result of a
09:27collaborative effort between multiple countries, as a spokesperson for the F-35 JPO told TWZ.
09:34That spokesperson's point was that the U.S. alone doesn't control how other countries use their F-35s.
09:40He's also attempting to state that the jet being the result of an in-depth collaboration means that
09:44the U.S. couldn't stop other countries from using their F-35s by cutting off supporting services.
09:49That isn't the case. TWZ notes that Lockheed Martin, along with Pratt & Whitney, retain key
09:55data rights to the fighter. The latter supplies the engines that power every F-35 fighter, with
10:01their retention of data rights making it difficult, if not impossible, for any other manufacturer to
10:06build engines for those jets. Those data rights also create limitations. An F-35 can only be
10:12repaired, tweaked, or even undergo routine maintenance at contractor-operated facilities.
10:17If those contractors are ordered to stop providing their services to the European users of the jet,
10:22we'd start to see the degradation that Rugaway speaks about sooner rather than later.
10:26There is no knowledge base whatsoever to do so in the user's country, TWZ notes.
10:31And therein lies the problem for Europe. Trump doesn't have access to a direct kill switch.
10:35However, he does have some measure of control over the services that jets American manufacturers
10:40provide to their partners. Just as we saw with the F-16 becoming less useful to Ukraine when
10:45the U.S. briefly cut off aid, we'd see the F-35 become a lame duck. Losing access to basic
10:50maintenance would ground many of these extremely complex aircraft. If Trump then decided to prevent
10:56manufacturers from providing vital support systems, missiles, and electronic warfare components to
11:01Europe's F-35 users, he'd effectively destroy their ability to use the fighter jets they've purchased.
11:07Speaking to Defense One, Richard Abelafia of Aerodynamic Advisory gets to the root of the
11:13problem. The F-35 was the product of an era of extreme trust, he says. And they, referring to
11:18America's European and NATO partners, may never trust the U.S. again if Trump kills support for
11:23the system. That brings us to an obvious question. Why would Trump even press this roundabout kill
11:28switch in the first place? The answer seems to come down to pressure. That's according to the
11:33Telegraph's report on the F-35 kill switch. It says Trump's early March decision to suspend military
11:38aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine was an attempt to place pressure on Zelensky to begin
11:43peace talks with Russia. There may have also been a desire on Trump's part to push Zelensky into
11:47resuming talks on a minerals deal between the U.S. and Ukraine. Plus, it's likely no coincidence that
11:52the suspension came mere days after the disastrous White House meeting between Trump and Zelensky
11:58on February 28th. America's president seemed to be saying to Zelensky that he had to do things
12:02Trump's way or lose everything. And it worked. Delegates from Zelensky and Trump's administrations
12:07met in Saudi Arabia to hash out the terms of a 30-day ceasefire on March 12th. As of the producing
12:13of this video, Putin hasn't accepted the terms of that ceasefire. But that doesn't matter. Trump will
12:18feel that his pausing of military aid, and the effect it had on Ukraine's F-16s, brought Zelensky
12:23to the table. America's president also received a promise that Ukraine would resume talks on the
12:28minerals deal during that Saudi Arabia meeting. Trump got what he wanted by cutting Ukraine off.
12:33Europe will now wonder if he'll pull the same tricks with their F-35s if he feels that those
12:38on the continent are getting out of line. The final question is simple. What impact would Trump
12:43activating the no-supplies kill switch have on Europe? For one, it wouldn't ground Europe's
12:47collective air forces. That's not to say losing the F-35 wouldn't have an impact. We mentioned
12:52earlier that Germany has 35 of them on the way, which accounts for nearly a quarter of its fighter
12:57jet stock. Lockheed Martin also estimates there will be approximately 600 F-35s operating in
13:03Europe by the end of 2035. Assuming European countries continue to buy the fighter jet,
13:08Norway received three more of them in March 2025 alone, with more incoming. Losing those aircraft
13:13to a US kill switch would be devastating. Not only would Europe collectively lose important
13:18aerial assets, but it would no longer have access to what's widely considered the most advanced
13:23fighter jet in the world. The continent's collective threat against Russia and any
13:27other enemies would be drastically reduced. But the threat wouldn't disappear in time.
13:31Europe is already working on a sixth-generation fighter jet of its own that could supplant the
13:36F-35. Dubbed the Future Combat Air System, or FCAS, the jet is being developed as part of the
13:41European Technology Acquisition Program, which sees France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden,
13:47and the UK work together on new defense equipment. That jet is nowhere near ready for launch.
13:52So far, we've only seen mockups of what it might look like. However, it's indicative of a growing
13:57trend within Europe to focus on its own defense manufacturing, rather than relying on the US
14:01for its most advanced weapons system. Trump choosing to kill Europe's F-35s would likely
14:06accelerate the work being done on this program. Europe also has its own fourth-generation fighter
14:11jets, which are roughly equivalent to America's F-16. These include the Eurofighter Typhoon,
14:16which some believe could soon fly over the skies of Ukraine, the French Rafale and Mirage,
14:21the Saab Gripen. Again, these are fighters over which the US has no control. They're not as
14:26advanced as the F-35. However, they are still powerful enough to ensure Europe maintains an
14:30aerial threat, even if it loses access to its F-35. That threat just won't be as large as it
14:35once was. The US would also experience problems if Trump activated an F-35 kill switch of any
14:41description. Though the jet was the result of a collaboration between the US and its European
14:45NATO partners, there's no denying that the majority of the manufacturing needed for the jet
14:50takes place in the US. Lockheed Martin is its primary manufacturer, with many of its supporting
14:55components also being built in the US or by America-approved contractors. Think about what
14:59this means from the economic perspective. If Trump kills Europe's F-35s, he will destroy the trust
15:04that enabled the platform to exist in the first place. Burned by the US once, European countries
15:09would naturally move away from buying F-35s, preferring instead to focus on fighter jets of
15:14their own design. Imagine that Germany cancelled its contract with Lockheed Martin for the 35
15:19F-35s we mentioned earlier. That amounts to $9 billion of lost contracts right off the bat,
15:24and that would only be the start. Each F-35 costs between $82.5 million and $109 million,
15:30depending on the model purchased. Lockheed Martin was anticipating having around 600 of them in
15:35Europe by 2035. Losing that business would put a multi-billion dollar hole in the company's bank
15:41account, leading to mass layoffs and major issues for the American company. There are hints that
15:45European countries are already shying away from the F-35. For instance, Portugal planned to spend
15:50around $6 billion on F-35s, intending to use the jets to replace older fighters in its air force.
15:56But as Business Insider reported on March 14th, Portugal is getting cold feet over the purchase.
16:01US policy uncertainty is to blame, which reflects a prevailing attitude on the continent.
16:06Many Europeans don't believe that they can trust the Trump administration to follow through on
16:10promises made by the US, either before or during Trump's tenure. They're also watching as Trump
16:16decries NATO and goes back and forth on his policies for Ukraine, all of which only adds
16:21to the uncertainty. How can those nations cooperate with a country that seems to change its direction
16:25on a weekly basis? Perhaps that distrust will be the ultimate kill switch for the F-35 in Europe.
16:31The countries using the platform may not be willing to wait around and see if Trump uses
16:35America's manufacturing control to apply pressure. They'll just move on, cancelling purchases and
16:40relying on European-made fighter jets instead. In addition to the economic problems that could
16:45cause for America's defense industry, it would also mean the US loses even more of its influence
16:50on a continent where its position has become increasingly shaky in recent months. Trump may
16:54not have to press a kill switch on Europe's F-35s at all. The continent may do it for him in the
17:00future. But what do you think about the F-35 kill switch dilemma? Would Trump ever go so far as to
17:05cut Europe off from access to the key parts and maintenance facilities it needs to keep its F-35s
17:11in the air? What would that mean for the future of US and European cooperation? Let us know your
17:16thoughts in the comments section and thank you for watching.