JSF Deputy

The Joint Strike Fighter program is getting a new second-in-command, according to a just-released Pentagon statement:

Rear Adm. (lower half) Randolph L. Mahr will be assigned as deputy director, Joint Strike Fighter Program, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense Acquisitions, Technology and Logistics, Arlington, Va.  Mahr is currently serving as commander, Naval Air Warfare Center, Aircraft Division/assistant commander for research and engineering, Naval Air Systems Command (AIR 4.0), Patuxent River, Md.

Mahr's incoming boss hasn't had kind words for the JSF program, as InsideDefense.com reported last month:

The next Joint Strike Fighter program executive officer today delivered a blunt assessment of the major changes needed to the way the F-35 is managed -- primary among them a reset of the relationship between manufacturer Lockheed Martin and the program office, which he termed "the worst I’ve ever seen."

Maj. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, the deputy PEO of the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO), has been nominated for a third star and the program manager's job when Vice Adm. David Venlet retires. In his first appearance before reporters since moving into a JSF management role five weeks ago, Bogdan today praised Venlet for steering the program onto a sustainable path while criticizing almost every aspect of the way the F-35 program was conceived.

In particular, Bogdan emphasized what he described as a lack of wisdom behind the idea of concurrency, the aircraft program's simultaneous development, production, training and fielding processes.

Bogdan -- whose extensive acquisition experience includes serving as PEO of the KC-46 tanker program and as senior military assistant to the Pentagon's top weapons buyer -- stressed that the relationship between the government, the JSF contractors and other participants needs to be radically altered for the program to progress.

"Here comes a little bit of straight talk," he said at the Air Force Association's annual conference in National Harbor, MD. "I have a lot of [experience] in the acquisition world, and I will tell you that the relationship between Lockheed Martin and the JPO and the stakeholders is the worst I have ever seen. The worst I’ve ever seen."

Bogdan continued: “We will not succeed in this program until we get past that. It's a cultural thing. It's a cultural thing that Lockheed Martin has to work on. It's a cultural thing that the JPO has to work on. It's a cultural thing the department has to work on. We have to find a better place to be in this relationship."