Turkey wants to link F-35 jets to its Air Force network

[monitor]

Turkey wants to link F-35 jets to its Air Force network
By: Burak Ege Bekdil   11 hours ago

Turkey placed its first Joint Strike Fighter order in 2014 under its low-rate initial production 10 program, and its second order in October 2016. (Samuel King Jr./U.S. Air Force)

ANKARA, Turkey —Turkey’s defense procurement agency has officially launched a competition to combine all information systems on the country’s planned F-35 Lightning II fifth-generation multirole fighter jets to the Turkish Air Forces’ system network.

The Undersecretariat for Defence Industries (SSM in its Turkish acronym) dubs the program F-35/Air Force Information System Integration Project.

Under the program, the successful contender will connect the information systems installed on the F-35 fighter aircraft with the Air Forces’ information systems network, otherwise known as HvBS.



“The program involves safe connection of information systems elements between the F-35 aircraft and the Air Forces’ information systems network as well as safe sharing of classified information between these systems,” SSM said.

SSM has asked bidders to suggest solutions by Feb. 28. SSM’s department for cybersecurity and electronic warfare systems will be in charge of the program.

Turkey is a partner in the U.S.-led, multinational Joint Strike Fighter program. Under the JSF program, Turkey has committed to procure a total of 116 aircraft. Turkey placed its first JSF order in 2014 under its low-rate initial production 10 program, and its second order in October 2016.



Turkey’s procurement and military officials are hoping to build a new-generation, dual-fighter jet fleet by their country’s centennial, 2023, comprising of the F-35 and an indigenous aircraft, known as TF-X, that Ankara has been designing under a know-how contract with BAE Systems.

Industry sources said the program to build critical links between the F-35 aircraft and Turkey’s combined Air Force command network probably won’t cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but it was tagged as “strategic” by the procurement authority.

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“This program will test the technological capabilities of Turkey’s local industry,” a source said. “The political idea is to earn as much indigenous software space as possible while at the same time remaining within the [JSF] program.”



Turkish officials have said the idea behind the TF-X program is to build a fighter fleet independent of foreign technology.

 

[Sinnerman108]

Excellent,
In other words the Turks are now going to mitigate the biggest threat that comes with western aircraft.
"Kill switch"

 

[Killuminati]

Excellent,
In other words the Turks are now going to mitigate the biggest threat that comes with western aircraft.
"Kill switch"

S400 system will have that to..

 

[-------]

Excellent,
In other words the Turks are now going to mitigate the biggest threat that comes with western aircraft.
"Kill switch"

No I don't think so, it's just building up on network centric battle management through Link-16/22 which Turkish companies are more then capable of doing. The only mitigation against 'Kill Switch' is Turkey's own 5th gen fighter development..

 

[Sinnerman108]

No I don't think so, it's just building up on network centric battle management through Link-16/22 which Turkish companies are more then capable of doing. The only mitigation against 'Kill Switch' is Turkey's own 5th gen fighter development..

That approach is around building a bridge protocol on top of the known aspects of the propriety protocol.
Similar to what we have done in Link17.
This allows some measure of networking and information sharing.
However from the article I believe the Turks will have their "OWN" system right from the scratch.
thereby mitigating the kill switch scenario.

 

[cloud4000]

Excellent,
In other words the Turks are now going to mitigate the biggest threat that comes with western aircraft.
"Kill switch"

This kill switch is a myth. If such a switch really did exist, what self-respecting air force would have such an aircraft?

 

[A.P. Richelieu]

Any aircraft with a possibility to download new code over satellite channels have a potential kill switch.
Not having source code is a security hole.
Having source code does not mean that you do not have a security hole.
One of the biggest contributor to the OpenSSH/SSL SW is NSA.
Probably for a reason.

 

[Blackwolf12]

Any aircraft with a possibility to download new code over satellite channels have a potential kill switch.
Not having source code is a security hole.
Having source code does not mean that you do not have a security hole.
One of the biggest contributor to the OpenSSH/SSL SW is NSA.
Probably for a reason.

yea but unless hacked the end user has to manually undergo the update.

 

[A.P. Richelieu]

yea but unless hacked the end user has to manually undergo the update.

You do not know anything about the hardware.
There could be hidden memory areas, which are unlocked by a secret key.
Software running undetected in the background through hidden multithreading.
Intel processors are rumoured to have backdoors allowing the US to download code to any PC connected to a network.

 

[Sinnerman108]

This kill switch is a myth. If such a switch really did exist, what self-respecting air force would have such an aircraft?

the US constitution ensures that all arm manufacturers build measures to retain control

Educate yourself before you comment.