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Comment by Bluestrike2 | Hacker News Reader

I'd expect the original agreements that were put in place--both the ones with the subcontractors as well as the purchase agreements--are quite strict on what you can do with the plane. Trying to reverse engineer software (the policy was that no one gets access to the original source code for the F-35[0], at least back in 2009) is probably a no-go under those agreements.

The original article suggests that Ukraine may end up having to replace the electronic countermeasures hardware to get around this in the future, so I'd expect any attempts to "un-brick"/work around the lack of support will eventually be along those lines, even if it results in some performance degradation.

No matter how they approach this, it's going to be a horrifically difficult and expensive task.

0. https://www.reuters.com/article/world/exclusive-us-to-withho...

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> Trying to reverse engineer software (the policy was that no one gets access to the original source code for the F-35[0], at least back in 2009) is probably a no-go under those agreements.

the UK made access to the source code a condition of purchase, and the technology transfer agreement was signed

in a hypothetical scenario where the US federal government falls under the direct control of a russian asset, I imagine this would end up in our allies hands reasonably quickly

I expect knowing this new f35 deliveries will have hardware just different enough to need new software.

Move a few flags around in a few registers and for all practical purposes it’s stuck.

> I'd expect the original agreements that were put in place--both the ones with the subcontractors as well as the purchase agreements--are quite strict on what you can do with the plane. Trying to reverse engineer software (the policy was that no one gets access to the original source code for the F-35[0], at least back in 2009) is probably a no-go under those agreements.

We're talking about Europe being able to protect itself from a potential Russian invasion despite the US bricking their F35s, and your argument is that they'd have to bend or break an agreement?

I don't think that's a big hurdle, in that eventuality.

(Reminds me a touch of this, though: :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3EBs7sCOzo )

> The original article suggests that Ukraine may end up having to replace the electronic countermeasures hardware

See my other comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43307996#43309468 Replacing the jammers shouldn't be "horrifically difficult", might still be expensive though.

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