Kill Switch is a myth.....................................
The Block 52 F-16s gifted to Pak in 2010 came with strict stipulations -- if they are used against India instead of air support against the Taliban, the US will cut them off at the knees. All parts, technical support or spare supplies will immediately cease.
Some folks supposedly in the know are also whispering that the planes are being delivered with "kill switches" remotely controlled by the US -- any misuse and the US will turn the birds to dead metal by killing critical electronic components from afar, making them inoperable. Good decision, if true, and it really has teeth instead of this being just talk.
After hints that the US can disable Turkish F-16’s by executing hidden segments of software not revealed to Turkish authorities in the critical mission computers of the F-16, the Turkish Air Force had given orders for the removal and replacement of all US made or foreign originated mission computers on it’s F-16 aircraft with the indigenous ASELSAN designed, developed and produced mission computers.
This was to remove apprehensions that the F-16s had embedded software that could make the F-16s inoperable. If this was fantasy, why did the Turkish Air Force replace mission computers with their own? As to how the Americans allowed them to do this is surprising.
At a recent hearing, a U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs addressed Pakistan’s ongoing refusal to let the United States help it secure its nuclear arsenal with American technology.
Pakistan remains reluctant to allow such intervention, citing fears that the United States would use the opportunity to cripple its weapons with—what else?—a kill switch!
Transmitting commands via satellite to kill critical electronic components that you have manufactured yourself is a cinch. So a 'kill switch' may not be science fiction after all!