Kill Switches for Military Equipment
By Joel D. Joseph
Why doesn't the Defense Department learn from its past mistakes? We left billions of dollars' worth of weapons in Iraq that were taken and used by ISIS. When ISIS captured Mosul in 2014 it found a treasure trove of U.S. military hardware: Humvees, helicopters, antiaircraft weapons and M1 Abrams tanks and used them against our troops and against our allies.
We ought to build military equipment that includes a "kill switch" to remotely disable it should the equipment fall into enemy hands. Other products, including automobiles and smartphones, already use kill switch technologies to disable a car if loan payments are not made, or on smartphones that are stolen.
The theft of iphones plummeted in 2014 after Apple introduced a remote "kill switch" by which a phone's owner could activate so that no one can use a stolen or lost phone. If this feature is worth putting in a $500 cellphone, why not embed similar devices in multimillion dollar military aircraft?
Car Loans with Kill Switches
For many years car loans to questionable borrowers required the installation of a kill switch on the car. Miss a car payment and your car wouldn't start. This technology is easy to install on vehicles and could be used on all those captured pickup trucks, Humvees and other military vehicles that you see on CNN waving Taliban banners. Wouldn't it have been prudent to install these switches on all vehicles that we sent to Iraq and Afghanistan? Wouldn't you like to be able see the face of a Taliban fighter when his pickup truck or Humvee wouldn't start?
Many of these devices come with GPS (Global Positioning System), so that in addition to disabling a vehicle, it can be tracked down. This is helpful for repossessing a car with an overdue loan. It can also help the U.S. military locate missing airplanes, tanks, trucks and other expensive weaponry.
Built-In Expiration Dates
Another technique that could be used is to have a built-in "expiration date" installed within electronic weapons such as Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and remote-controlled drones. These weapons would not be usable after a certain time period unless the device was renewed by an electronically coded signal from its manufacturer or the U.S. Defense Department. Tanks and aircraft could have a similar device installed in them.
In addition to making weapons inoperable, remote signals could actually trigger an explosion to completely destroy the plane, tank or other military equipment. This could also be useful if a radical American pilot decided to take an Air Force airplane on an unauthorized trip to enemy territory or to bomb U.S. forces.
Another technique is the "permissive action link" devices that are used to protection our nuclear arsenal. These nuclear weapons can only be activated when a specific code is used. These codes can deactivate a nuclear weapon in case it gets into the wrong hands.
Military drones are operated remotely yet are protected against digital hijacking. We have the ability to protect and deactivate drones that fall into the wrong hands and should use this technology for all of our other weapons.
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