Ottawa has started to make payments for key components for 14 additional U.S.-built F-35s, even as the Carney government has been reviewing future fighter-jet purchases in the context of trade tensions with Washington, sources have told CBC News.
The money for these 14 aircraft is in addition to the contract for a first order of 16 F-35s, which will start being delivered to the Canadian Armed Forces at the end of the year.
According to sources, the new expenses are related to the purchase of so-called “long-lead items,” which are parts that must be ordered well in advance of the delivery of a fully assembled aircraft.
Canada had to make these expenditures to maintain its place in the long-term delivery schedule and avoid being replaced by other buyers in the queue, sources said.
Intel Management Engine is a well known backdoor that is present in every single Intel CPU/motherboard and it is literally all over all of NATO. People said that didn’t exist until exploits started popping up, years later, in devices every single consumer has easy, convenient, 24 hour access to.
NATO was built on the understanding that the US could be relied upon to act in the interests of NATO as a whole. I do not think that the threat from US has been adequately considered by other NATO countries until now.
If you don’t see how opaque firmware blobs which could potentially contain literally anything could have been an underestimated threat by NATO countries (all of which, by the way, are basically just US client states), then I suspect you’re rather closer to delusional thinking than I am.