Everyone is asking whether there is a kill switch. Wrong question.
There is no kill switch. There is a subscription. And the vendor has stopped taking your money.
Dr. Anke Verhoeven
microblog · @A_Verhoeven · analyst · 13 January 2026, 15:05
Same day
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@BBCBreaking · press
13 Jan 2026 09:15
BBC Breaking News
Breaking: RAF grounds F-35 fleet after loss of US-operated data services. Netherlands, Denmark and Norway confirm similar groundings. Emergency NATO session called.
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@grandma_wifi · civilian
13 Jan 2026 09:40
Eleanor
Sorry, a stupid question. Does "grounded" mean they are broken, or that someone has told them not to fly? I cannot work out from the news which one it is and they seem very different to me.
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@factcheck_anna · civilian
13 Jan 2026 09:58
Anna
Not a stupid question at all — it is THE question and the reporting is bad at it. They are not broken. Every one of those aircraft could take off right now. A safety system will not clear them because it cannot phone home to a server in the United States. So: …
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@grandma_wifi · civilian
13 Jan 2026 10:20
Eleanor
Oh. That is much worse, isn't it.
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@rahul_blr · civilian
13 Jan 2026 11:05
Rahul
Every defence procurement committee on earth opened a new agenda item this morning and the item is one sentence long: "what in our inventory has a switch we do not own?" I do software. The answer is going to be "almost everything" and it is going to take four …
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@Statsmin · state
13 Jan 2026 11:20
Statsministeriet
Prime Minister Frederiksen: "This is an unprecedented, hostile breach of sovereign defence agreements. We are seeking immediate bilateral consultations with the White House."
wire
wire record
13 Jan 2026 12:00
Europe grounds its stealth fleet
Availability across the allied F-35 force falls by more than half in seventy-two hours. The United Kingdom brings forensic logs to Brussels showing the severance was administrative, deliberate, and American.
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@HardhatHank · civilian
13 Jan 2026 12:30
Hank R.
Serious question from someone who builds things for a living: if you were the Japanese or the Koreans this morning, would you sign the next order? Because I would not. And that is my industry. That is my town.