The Pentagon yesterday named a new deputy program executive officer for the Joint Strike Fighter, as a new team to oversee the most expensive weapons program in the building’s history readies to takeover.
Rear Adm. Randolph Mahr has been tapped to become the deputy director of the F-35 fighter program under the Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall. The announcement was made by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert in a Pentagon statement.
Mahr would join the staff of Maj. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, who was confirmed by the Senate last month as the next program executive officer for the JSF and to replace Vice Adm. David Venlet, who plans to retire. Bogdan, who is currently deputy, is set to get this third star.
Mahr serves as the commander of Naval Air Warfare Center at Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR).
Bogden in widely reported remarks during a September speech at the Air Force Association symposium took aim at the cost overruns and delays in the JSF program and criticized prime contractor Lockheed Martin [LMT].
The program is now estimated to cost nearly $400 billion to procure 2,776 of the F-35 variants for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, with the total life-cycle cost that includes operations and maintenance expected to exceed $1 trillion in the decades ahead.
The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin have been locked in protracted negotiations for the fifth low-rate production contract for the next batch of F-35s.
The Pentagon in February announced it was restructuring the program for the third time by delaying purchases of 179 planes over the next five years to save an estimated $15.1 billion dollars.
The Pentagon on Friday posted a notice online of plans to open up the competition for the long-term sustainment of the F-35s to companies in addition to Lockheed Martin, and intends to provide information on those plans during meetings with industry representatives scheduled for Nov. 14-15.
“Competition is a good thing. One doesn’t want to be beholden to one company for the next 65 years,” said Joe DellaVedova, the spokesman for the JSF Joint Program Office. “We want to find out what other businesses have to offer.”