• naeap@sopuli.xyz
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    2 months 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

    • mtoboggan@feddit.org
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      2 months ago

      We can. The US only pushed us to buy F35 to carry their atomic warheads.
      Eurofighter, Rafale and Gripen are excellent fighter jets.

      • naeap@sopuli.xyz
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        2 months ago

        Are the Eurofighter really good?
        At least in the first years I’ve only read about problems and the ones in Austria couldn’t fly for most of the time
        But that’s quite some years ago, so I can’t remember what the problems actually were - and have no idea, if those got finally resolved

        Is there any comparison to relative modern MiGs (or whatever the correct counterpart would be)?

        Edit: also I’ve read that the American jets have some kind of lock, where we need some unlock code from the USA. Is that correct?
        Because that is quite some high level of trust into a foreign power to let ourselves defend our countries

          • einrobert@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            Also the F35s are very complex and require a lot of maintenance. Not sure about EF , Rafale or Gripens.

            • Skua@kbin.earth
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              2 months ago

              Gripen is specifically built to be cheap and easy to maintain (for a fighter jet, of course). It seems like it’d be a great choice for Ukraine

            • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              Also, if any of these contain proprietary code that can not be independently inspected by military staff, they should be considered compromised.

              Corporations exist to generate profit. They do not care about borders, and can’t be trusted to not share information with current and future adversaries.

              • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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                2 months ago

                Some Finnish guy claimed that it’s not just that F35s contain proprietary code, they actively phone home daily to the US and stop working if they can’t reach the server.

                If that’s true, it’s incredibly fucked up and whoever made the deal to buy them should be fired out of a cannon.

    • perestroika@lemm.ee
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      2 months 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.

      • naeap@sopuli.xyz
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        2 months 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

        • perestroika@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

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

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

          The 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.

    • Wronnay@lemmy.ml
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      2 months 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@kbin.earth
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        2 months 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

      • naeap@sopuli.xyz
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        2 months 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…