Taking command

I have found that a good photo of General LeMay always gets everyone's attention.

Transisition time before taking command of a military organisation is when one finds out about the real status of what they are taking over.

The USAF's own General Bogdan is replacing Admiral Venlet as head of the troubled U.S. Department of Defense, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program Office.

The F-35 program troubles are the like of which...well the world has never seen the like of which.

Bogdan took the stage earlier today at the Air Force Association (AFA) gathering which is held every September. AFA events are usually happy affairs where various movers and shakers in the United States Air Force gather to announce the state-of-the-state as it were. Industry is also there for...um..decorative purposes.

Bogdan's speech was to tell everyone the latest about the USAF's alleged future fighter aircraft, the F-35. The one that service leaders have morgaged our future tacital air roadmap on.

So how's it going General?

If the F-35 faithful were expected more stories of how the troubled program was, well, troubled, but moving forward, what Bogdan offered them was a dead cat thrown on the stage.

Bogdan told the audience he has never seen a program stakeholder relationship this bad (and he has seen some bad ones) reports Aviation Week.

He went on:

Bogdan threatened the industrial team with a drop-kick to the pocketbook. Dealing with the contentious issue of operating costs, he said that competing estimates were so sensitive to assumptions that "they can't inform any of us about what to do and what not to do. I'm not listening to any of them. I'm looking at what we have in front of us today - and the strategy is wrong and it needs to be changed."

I figure Bogdan should be interesting to watch. And with a nation $16T in debt, maybe he will offer some different options for our U.S. tac-air future.

It is confirmed that Bogdan did not have a shotgun nor did he hurt anything, except maybe some feelings. And, he didn't need special glasses to see the problem.