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Originally Posted by Rain Man
I've always wondered if we imbed those things with a secret kill switch, so if anything ever happened, we could immobilize them quickly.
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Something along those lines wouldn't surprise me too much. I doubt it's an outright kill switch, but it's probably considerably less sophisticated than the US models.
The old USSR had a similar trick. Every piece of equipment that was going to be used and sold for export had 2 models made. The USSR one, and the "monkey-model" as they termed it. For instance, the BMP-1 when first deployed to Pact allies and the ME nations had no turret stabilization, no automatic loader for the 73 mm cannon, minimal NBC protection, and a very basic, if any, IR sensor suite.
Because of the USSR's habit of deploying new material to the internal districts first, and keeping it under wraps, these "monkey-models" could be sold as the latest technology available. It had the added benefit of giving the West a dramatic mis-assessment of the capability of capture equipment passed on by the Israelis, among others.