@adwright@mastodon.socialLockheed is feeling the squeeze of collapsing F-35 sales to the point that the Pentagon denies it has a "kill switch" the US can activate.
They do not seem to realize that no one believes a single word that comes out of any United States corporate and government mouths any more.
The US word on anything means nothing at all. Less than nothing, as it is almost always now a sin of commission, not omission being covered up.
Don't buy American. No low is too low for them to go now.
republicans lie about everything
you can't believe a word from corporations and you can't believe a word from defense contractors
do not buy american anything
DO NOT
sincerely,
an american
@adwright
And in any case those F-35s need too much maintenance that can only be provided by the manufacturer. So, even if there is no mechanical kill switch, there is still a kill switch.
You're preaching to the choir. I thought the original purchase idea was completely out to lunch for a slew of reasons and that was back in the day "the US would go full Nazi on us and be an existential threat" wasn't even on the table.
The thing is a lemon is the fast uptake, and would be crazy short flight hours vs crazy high maintenance. It was not ideally suited for missions, had manufacturing issues, man there's lists of why it was a bad idea.
@adwright @bjb The tough spot F-35 customers were in was that even if F-35 was a bad idea, there was a lack of good idea alternatives.
No one wanted to bite the ultra expensive and risky bullet of developing an alternative 5th gen jet. And neither Rafale nor Gripen are promising starting points to a "half stealth" jet like F-15Xwhatever.
It's tough. Well, at least Meteor vastly outperforms AMRAAM, so there's that.
@adwright
It wouldn't be a mechanical kill switch but an electronic one triggered by satellite or nearby devices. F-35 hardware needs its software to fly and be competitive/superior in combat.
Probably playing for time. Trump is moving faster than the speed of justice and faster than most corporate boards too.
On the one hand they're locked into a symbiotic relationship with a corrupt vengeful toddler regime where a wrong word could end them, and on the other war is good for business so it behooves them to not make waves and wait for re-armament contracts.
@adwright Because every insipid utterance from the raping felon is rancid #bullshit. Every lickspittle spew emanating from the Nazi suck-ups comprising his #GOP enablers is horseshit from whole cloth. #NoIntegrity #NoCredibility #DontBuyAmerican
What really seals the deal on this is now Trump has effectively removed all oversight over every aspect of American commerce from finance to quality to health & safety to environmental to waste management not only does it enable criminal conduct, it incentivizes it as "honest" businesses are priced out of the market while sleazebags offer "discount" prices on unknowable provenance merchandise, goods and services.
Even if the GOP were deposed tomorrow the damage will linger years.
@adwright About that killswitch... Young adult on a cold morning in the 1990's in their beater car: "please please start, i've been good to you, oil change on time, been easy on the battery,... please please." Same adult in their 50's, today in their Tesla, "please please start, i've been so good, tweeted only nice things about the usa!"
Spot on…
@adwright LM is speaking to the only audience they really care about. the stock markets.
@adwright while I imagine the kill switch rumors don’t help that is not what’s driving this. It’s the government Lockheed operates under the dominion of.
@adwright
F-35s are high maintenance. it doesn't take a kill switch to ground them, just a Trump order not to maintain these jets.
This is why Trump single-handedly sabotaged Lockheed sales: he canceled Ukraine support and blabbered about not honoring Article 5 and annexing Canada and Greenland.
Trump's James Bond nonsense about a kill switch wasn't the straw on the camels back, just idiocy to get ratings.
@adwright No one believes? I wish. Finnish government says there is no problem. Someone here said some time ago that our prime minister is a piss-wetted mitten. Sooo. As we are bordering with Russia, this is so great 
@Niina @adwright as the politicians here in Finland say like a choir: "US is still a reliable ally". I'm sure it is done just for appearances. Regarding F-35: they are building extensive technical capabilities for maintaining those things locally. I would have pulled the plug regardless, as we are most likely to get attacked by a US ally (i.e. Russia).
Sorry to hear it. :(
@adwright My "F-35s don't include a US Military kill switch" T-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt.
I don't believe them about the new "Golden Dome" space missile thingy defence system.
If it was true, it would be one per city, and Donald would announce it as "Golden Arches".
And then demand a kickback from McDonald's.
"Lockheed está sintiendo la presión del desplome de las ventas del F-35, hasta el punto de que el Pentágono niega tener un "interruptor de emergencia" que Estados Unidos pueda activar.
Parece que no se dan cuenta de que ya nadie cree ni una sola palabra que sale de boca de las corporaciones y el gobierno estadounidenses.
Lo que dice Estados Unidos sobre cualquier cosa no significa nada en absoluto. Menos que nada, ya que casi siempre se trata de un pecado de acción, no de una omisión encubierta.
No compren productos estadounidenses. Ningún precio es demasiado bajo para ellos."