the podium · Posted at 16:20 · 13 January 2026, 16:20
We built those planes. We sold them those planes. We maintain those planes — at OUR cost, on OUR computers, for THIRTY YEARS.
Now they want the planes without us. Doesn't work that way. Never did. They just never had to think about it before.
Two days earlier he had told reporters he knew nothing about it and to ask the Air Force.
Breaking: RAF grounds F-35 fleet after loss of US-operated data services. Netherlands, Denmark and Norway confirm similar groundings. Emergency NATO session called.
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.
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: …
Oh. That is much worse, isn't it.
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 …
Prime Minister Frederiksen: "This is an unprecedented, hostile breach of sovereign defence agreements. We are seeking immediate bilateral consultations with the White House."
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.
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.