[Proud_USA_Republican]

whats plan B? buy a bunch of outdated French POS mirage fighters?

[Yo-Yo]

If the UK drops out of the F-35B, it will kill that variant. The Marine Corps order alone wouldn't be enough to justify full production.

It may even axe the entire F-35 program.

[Roverman2K]

I love Britain, but do not give them the codes.
I am sick to death of us giving away or selling our best technology, and thats what this is, not for defense, they want the source code, what we are so much better at is the AI, not the airframes

[Vicomte13]

Seems like a necessary request.

You can't buy a warplane for which another nation holds the master key, obviously.

It will be interesting to see if the US Pentagon bends.
If not, France will be pleased to sell Rafales to Britain.

[starbase]

Wow, this is a toughfy. I love Britain too, but they might hand the codes around to who knows who, given all those socialists over there in tight with the European socialists.

I say keep the codes to ourselves, set a precedent this time. And perhaps we should have been more clear about what the Brit's 12 bill was going to finally buy from the outset.

[1rudeboy]

Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup

hehe Jock Stirrup hehe

[Southack]

Physical possession of the aircraft would enable any 1st world nation to access and decompile an aircraft's software and firmware.

Thus, the UK is merely floating an official excuse to kill the JSF...something that we've wanted to kill for some great amount of time now.

Let it die. Paying Billions for manned fighters rarely makes sense in this Age.

Even stealth fighters are facing obsoletion now that Israel has fielded video-targeting anti-aircraft missiles (the handwriting is on the wall). Computer software can handle complex image processing now (both visual and infrared). So video missiles can hit the stealthiest of aircraft (because they aren't invisible).

We do still need manned fighters, and we need a few super fighters (that are likewise manned), but we don't need nearly so many variants of fighters as in the past.

So let the JSF program die, and thank the Brits for giving us a face-saving way to kill it.

[Question_Assumptions]

Personally, I think that if we were willing to help them build Trident Missile Subs, I think this isn't that big of a deal. Or do we have veto power over their nuclear missiles, too?

[Imnotalib]

"Give us the codes RIGHT NOW, or... or... or... - we'll buy INFERIOR AIRCRAFT!!!

Wait, that didn't come out right...."

[fso301]

I would hope designers created two sets of codes for just this type of situation.

[stinkerpot65]

Pentagon is full of idiots.