Russian Think Tank Warns India that U.S. Fighter Jets Could Carry "Backdoor" Trojans

Amid the U.S. sales pitch to India for its F-16s and the potential future sale of F-35s, a Russian think tank has warned that American fighter jets could come with intentionally inserted "backdoors" in the avionics suite, which when activated by externally emitted signals, could rendering combat sorties impossible to execute.

The Centre for Analysis of World Arms Trade (CAWAT), an independent research organization founded in 2010 in Moscow, whose director Igor Korotchenko, said this in an article published on Oborona.ru website.

“Undocumented capabilities” of American fighters

Another area of potential threats is undocumented capabilities and unauthorized access to certain features of American fighter jets. This opens up new opportunities for the United States to potentially influence India if, for one reason or another, bilateral relations suddenly deteriorate in the future (such as the sanctions that were imposed by the Clinton administration after India conducted nuclear tests in 1999).

Giving the example of the Mossad-triggered pager explosions that killed several hundred Hezbollah operatives in October, as an instance of “undocumented capabilities,” CAWAT said modern fighter jets are equipped with high capacity lithium ion batteries that can be brought to explode by configuring the parameters and recharging cycles triggered by a software command. And the software for the global fleet of F-35 aircraft is created by American specialists. Foreign users receive the software update from a control center in North America and do not have the option of installing their own software.

Russia’s hardsell of the Su-57 stealth jet to India

Russia has offered India the Su-57E stealth fighter, reportedly with reduced costs and an option for rupee-based payments.

India's combat squadrons will shrink with the MiG-21's retirement and it lacks fifth-generation aircraft, China operates 200+ J-20 stealth fighter jets and has recently unveiled the J-35A a multi-role stealth fighter.

The CAWAT article claims that the Su-57 is bigger, more powerful and has better stealth capabilities than the American F-35.