Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He\u2019s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he\u2019s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-17/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Jowi Morales Social Links Navigation Contributing Writer Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
Pierce2623 Just like an iPhone? Sure bud. I totally believe a $50,000,000 war machine can be jail broken just like an iPhone. The only difference is in this case you would have to rebuild the flight systems and weapon systems (basically ALL the electronics) from scratch because they won’t function on unsigned software. Reply
qxp Heh – iPhone probably contains way more lines of code, Android certainly does as Linux kernel alone is way more than that (according to Wikipedia, Linux kernel had 19.5 million lines of code in 2015, likely more now). Most likely the F-35 software is small to make it easier to test and well-documented to make it more maintainable as software engineers working on it come and go. It likely has strict coding standards that prohibit fancier features from modern languages. As for unsigned software, the trickiest bit is FPGA firmware, but worst case they would have to replace the FPGAs with fresh ones to upload their own bitstream, which is not that big of a deal compared to the cost of the plane. Reply
PEnns Totally wrong statement. Jailbreak an IPhone?? He surely means an Android!! 😜 On the other hand, considering the humongous amount of (soft / hardware) issues the F-35 had till (and after) it became operational, I bet it is feasible in the hands of certain competent state-hackers. Reply
King_V I think the point here is this: That’s not the point… we’ll see whether the Americans will show their true colors. The fact that the question even shows up, or the concern that the US could/would betray our allies, or put this kind of restraint on them, seems like it would hurt potential sales. I can't imagine this is good, long term, for the US or for Lockheed. Reply
Pierce2623 qxp said: Heh – iPhone probably contains way more lines of code, Android certainly does as Linux kernel alone is way more than that (according to Wikipedia, Linux kernel had 19.5 million lines of code in 2015, likely more now). Most likely the F-35 software is small to make it easier to test and well-documented to make it more maintainable as software engineers working on it come and go. It likely has strict coding standards that prohibit fancier features from modern languages. As for unsigned software, the trickiest bit is FPGA firmware, but worst case they would have to replace the FPGAs with fresh ones to upload their own bitstream, which is not that big of a deal compared to the cost of the plane. The f35’s systems are indeed EXTREMELY well documented and it’s all top secret and not available to customers. Only Boeing or whoever is allowed to service them. It’s in the contracts. If they “jailbroke” them, they would be violating massive contracts and relegating themselves to much simpler Russian aircraft. However, I don’t see Russia selling to a NATO country. Reply
USAFRet qxp said: Heh – iPhone probably contains way more lines of code Not even close. Reply
Dementoss Admin said: Furthermore, these flying machines are way more complicated than a single handset, You don't say, jeez, who expected that?:sarcastic: Reply
JamesJones44 PEnns said: Jailbreak an IPhone?? He surely means an Android!! 😜 In the Android world, overriding the base system is call Rooting. So he did use the correct terminology for the device he referenced. Reply
King_V Pierce2623 said: The f35’s systems are indeed EXTREMELY well documented and it’s all top secret and not available to customers. Only Boeing or whoever is allowed to service them. It’s in the contracts. If they “jailbroke” them, they would be violating massive contracts… This sort of begs two questions: Other than the claim on the part of the Dutch Secretary of Defense that they COULD technically do it, if they ever did, would they tell anyone? Do the contracts also say that the US is permitted to remote-kill the planes, either partial functionality, or in entirety?EDIT: Also, isn't it inherently dangerous for ANY government to be dependent on Lockheed's (or any private company's) cloud infrastructure to operate these devices? Seems that would allow a company the ability to say "Yeah, how about the law doesn't apply to us for situation's X, Y, and Z, just as a favor? I mean, it'd be a shame if you didn't do that for us, and you lost your air superiority, wouldn't it?" There's clearly something that either I don't understand/know here, or it's all just something that's incredibly reckless, with any government just sort of saying "eh, we'll worry about that if it ever happens." Reply
qxp Pierce2623 said: The f35’s systems are indeed EXTREMELY well documented and it’s all top secret and not available to customers. Only Boeing or whoever is allowed to service them. It’s in the contracts. If they “jailbroke” them, they would be violating massive contracts and relegating themselves to much simpler Russian aircraft. However, I don’t see Russia selling to a NATO country. Being well documented and well written makes code easier to reverse engineer. I also seem to recall that the allies were provided at least some source code as it is necessary to make the most use of the aircraft. As the article author correctly points out it is the replacement hardware that is an issue – if you don't have a supply chain to produce F35 from scratch, you will have problems servicing them. Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/premium
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/dutch-secretary-of-defense-threatens-to-jailbreak-nations-f-35-jet-fighters-says-its-just-like-cracking-open-an-iphone-in-response-to-questions-over-software-independence#main
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.