U.S. Refuses to Hand Over Fighter Source Code to UK

orbitalia writes "The UK is heavily involved in the JSF (Joint Strike Fighter program) but has recently considered abandoning the project because the US refuses to share the source code. The UK had intended to purchase $120 billion dollars worth of aircraft to operate on two new aircraft carriers, but is now seriously considering Plan 'B'. This is likely to be further investments in the Eurofighter Typhoon project." From the article: "It appeared that Tony Blair and George Bush had solved the impasse in May, when they announced an agreement in principle that the UK would be given access to the classified details on conditions of strict secrecy. The news was widely seen as evidence that the Prime Minister's close alliance with the American President did have benefits for Britain ... 'If the UK does not obtain the assurances it needs from the US then it should not sign the Memorandum of Understanding covering production, sustainment and follow-on development,' the MPs insisted."

Comments

Can't they just reformat the planes?

[NotQuiteReal]

Why don't they buy the planes anyhow, I am sure they are the best available, then download Rockbox, or whatever the warplane equivalant OSS firmware is.

If that does't work, there should at least be a LGPL version, right?

Please hold for the Prime Minister

[tjcrowder]

"One moment, please hold for the Prime Minister"

(pause)

"Hello, Mr. Stallman? I understand you have some experience applying political pressure to closed-source vendors, I wonder if..."