Recent searches
Search options
Welp, looks like Türkiye is looking at acquiring Eurofighter Typhoons instead of F-35s. At this rate, Trump's reputational damage—self-inflicted by attacking his allies and cutting Ukraine off at the knees—is going to take down the US military export industry. Nobody wants to build their armed services around weapons bought from a supplier who couid decide to disable them on a whim.
https://mastodon.social/@glynmoody/114168327427858401
And after removing the bios of every Medal of Honor recipient who is not white - I wonder how many non-whites will serve in the US military?
They could lose 30% of their forces.
@Remittancegirl @cstross Ah that's just Trump's plan to avoid a military coup. Because the US armed forces have sworn to defend the country's Consitution and, well, Trump is trying to destroy that.
You can't have a military coup without a military.
@Uilebheist @Remittancegirl @cstross They could serve in state armed forces.
@Remittancegirl @cstross and, like many service jobs, woefully understaffed, and they just made it worse. Everything trump touches dies.
@cstross Having defense contractors pissed off at you is not a good situation.
@cstross This isn't anything new from Turkey, they were kicked out of the F35 program and have been trying to get Typhoons ever since.
@preterist @cstross yeah but Portugal is cancelling too (although I hear Portugal is a good place for Ex-pats
@cstross weren't they already being blocked from buying F-35s though, based on also having S-400 systems?
torstein@heretohinder @cstross yeah, but as recently as February this year they were told by the current administration they would be readmitted if they dropped the S-400 contract.
Seems like Erdogan will keep trying to balance both Putin and NATO, but that he is gambling on the US becoming irrelevant.
Add this to Canada and Portugal ditching the F-35, LMT investors is not going to be happy w Trump.
@cstross Trump blundering into breaking the military-industrial complex would be one of the few outcomes that isn't entirely negative.
@virtualbri @cstross The number of people he'll kill along the way is still unconscionable.
@cstross But, they were kicked out of the F-35 procurement for buying S-400 from Muscovy, long time ago. Nothing new here.
And they are supposed to be building their own stealth jet, the TAI Kaan.
(no idea how close are they to it actually being useful)
Came here to say this. Those inclined to read this thread might perhaps find more interesting the UK's early problems with the EULA for the (US) DSMAC navigation database used in Stormshadow cruise missiles donated to Ukrainian forces in the Russian invasion of Ukraine: without US permission for long range strikes into Russia, the missiles could only use GPS to navigate, and GPS can be "jammed".
@cstross Portugal has also abandoned its intention to buy the F-35 and is looking for European fighters.
https://theaviationist.com/2025/03/13/portugal-f-35-plans/
@cstross And the companies that make not just the F-35 but also other complex products like Patriot missiles are competitors with SpaceX in other markets. With all the uncleared access to US government records going on, expect supply chain and security issues
(sales reps at European and South Korean defense companies, please update your quarterly forecasts)
@cstross I suspect the UK will be looking hard at the independence of the "independent deterrent", and sourcing Tritium (etc.) from more reliable partners in future.
Not sure what they can do about the naval version of the F-35 though - the new carriers may end up being true "white elephants".
@Cadbury_Moose @cstross Placing the nuclear submarines under the command of the US probably also is no longer an option for the Letters of last resort.
@tessarakt @Cadbury_Moose @cstross Canadian government then -it's possibly where the royal family would be evacuated to anyway? It certainly was the plan in WWII,
@stevel @Cadbury_Moose @cstross According to Wikipedia, government of Australia is allegedly another option.
@tessarakt @Cadbury_Moose @cstross maybe in 1940, Canada was the only realistic evacuation option (KINGEVAC ?) -and the US wasn't considered a threat
@Cadbury_Moose @cstross
Is it so hard to separate tritium out of water-moderated/cooled reactors, or direct neutrons at water?
Handy if someone is producing the commodity though.
Big helicopter carriers?
I think the usual method is bombarding lithium-6, but they apparently have to extract the tritium from water-cooled reactors to keep emissions low when reprocessing spent fuel - it's possibly not economically viable for commercial use. Have a look at the Wikipedia entry...
@Cadbury_Moose @cstross
Spent fuel is in cans.
Neutrons from them will bounce around the water in the cooling pond, and some will stick to a H atom in water, some even to the resulting Deuterium atom.
But I think step one in reprocessing (are we even doing that?) would be to dry the rod.
You'll have a trace of T in the pond, but it decays moderately quickly.
The D2O heavy water might be worth separating out, it is useful.
Lithium splitting rings a bell. (+ rather larger one in Castle Bravo)
@cstross@wandering.shop not sure that Trump (Putin) would consider taking down the US military/export industry a bad thing.
@cstross exactly, especially when the current regime is willing to sell out anyone on the smallest perception of insult (even if it never actually happened)
American military equipment was being converted to insecure business models anyway.
Remote bricking & surveillance like Teslas & John Deere tractors...
https://www.voanews.com/a/tesla-data-helped-police-after-truck-explosion-experts-have-privacy-concerns-/7924749.html
https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/02/ukrainian_tractors_deere/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/elon-musk-help-cybertruck-explosion-b2673416.html
Satellite communications shut off on the whim of a Russian aligned toddler.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink_in_the_Russian-Ukrainian_War
@cstross
THIS. EXACTLY THIS.
"Nobody wants to build their armed services around weapons bought from a supplier who could decide to disable them on a whim."
@cstross ....meaningful shift away from an unreliable US. This very effective strategy to show disdain for US's duplicity can be applied (is being applied, me thinks) by everyday consumers in and outside of America. Don't buy US goods, services....until something changes with US leadership. They (leadership) are a corrupt, amoral gang of fascists rapidly imposing an authoritarian rule... they think they can do so with little/no pushback. Prove them wrong everyday.
Such a traitor, may he get what he deserves. Soon…
@cstross
To buy these would be madness. The USA is utterly compromised and completely untrustworthy with this lunatic Dotard as FOTUS.
@cstross It is almost like Türkiye doesn't trust usa and wants to be independent. I wonder what Canada thinks?
@Robo105 We’re already looking at cancelling our order of them as well, from the sounds of it.
@Serenus I haven't heard anything to that effect
@Robo105 It’s pretty recent and not 100% confirmed yet, but it’s being floated from the sounds of it.
@Serenus I hope you are right
@cstross I suspect one of the core differences right now is predictability. The big-tech-CEO style of rapid strategy swings to capture market moments is diametrically opposed to the old civil service in two ways. First and foremost was predictability; you knew what the government was going to do before they did it, and everyone liked it that way. You could build a business, or military industrial complex on that.
Yet another fundamental realignment we all have to live through.
@cstross Ignoring the whole fascism thing (as if you could), the biggest long term issue I foresee is the sudden shaking of trust the world has in American commitment to… pretty much everything.
In addition to winning WWII without being bombed to bits, the reason the United States has thrived in large parts relies on its economic and political stability, key of which is its trustworthiness to pay its debts and fulfill contracts. I don’t think we’ll ever recover from this.
@cstross they’ve already figured out manned fighters are an anachronism and gone all-in on drones (Bayraktar, drone division run by Erdoğan‘s son in law).They do have their own 5th gen fighter, the Taan, I don’t see why they’d bother with the Eurofighter:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAI_TF_Kaan
Long before Trump, they had good reason to distrust the US, like the exceedingly murky conditions under which Fethullah Gülen got his green card. Most Turks, not just AKP supporters, believe rightly or wrongly the US was involved in the failed Gülenist coup.
@fazalmajid That's "in development". Actual delivery in military spec would take at least 5 years from first flight (late 2023), and combat readiness in all roles takes another 10 years after that. The Typhoon is already there with full weapons integration and new capabilities being added in tranche 3.
Yet Canada still has to buy 16 of them? So, what if we don't?
@cstross
You'd think that the rich investors of the weapons export industries would be expressing displeasure at the project 2025 rich people.
@cstross
Canada is also reconsidering making a purchase. A French submarine dropped by Canada's Maritime Provinces, a social visit that shows off the military wares.
Canada is also considering moving away from tariffs to export taxes and blocks, which puts the pain on America, as opposed to their own citizens.
@cstross I would be looking at what Portugal is going to do. Turkey is running out of options, and will buy from anyone willing to sell, including Russians.
️ @hittitezombie @cstross Portugal cancelled their F35 order in favor of Eurofighter.
@cstross yup I reckon that bricking of the US fighters in Ukraine made a bunch of folks take notice
@kcarruthers @cstross I think lots of smart people knew that it was a strong risk with Trump in power, and the harmful stunt in Ukraine made it political low cost to do something about it.
@kcarruthers @cstross It could also be be the US trying to block sales of the Swedish Gripen to Columbia because the Gripen uses a GE brand motor.
@tintinaus @cstross everyone is going to need to strip all US components from their kit
#Trump is also decimating the #US #defense industry, as #EU countries are quickly developing technologies and equipment to fill the holes left by his desertion of our #NATO #OTAN allies.
(Example: Drones could be more important in modern warfare than bigger systems—and #Ukraine owns the absolute cutting edge of this technology.)
So what happens to Lockheed, Boeing, etc when their foreign customer base sees it can do without them?
Needless to say, the US defense industry donated millions to Trump’s election campaign. #Schadenfreude