WASHINGTON \u2014 Leadership of the F-35 program passed from the Air Force to the Navy on Thursday, as the joint program office looks toward wrapping up the F-35 development program and the Navy’s initial operational capability declaration in 2018.
After graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 1984 with a degree in mechanical engineering, Winter was commissioned as a naval flight officer in 1985. He conducted several tours as an A-6E Intruder Bombardier\/Navigator with Attack Squadrons 42, 85 and 34 before moving onto the acquisition world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bogdan will retire from the Air Force in June after more than four years of directing the F-35 program, which was in in danger of cancellation in 2012 when he took over. In his first public comments as F-35 JPO, Bogdan said the relationship between joint strike fighter manufacturer Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon was “the worst I’ve ever seen.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bogdan\u2019s tone eventually softened as Lockheed\u2019s performance improved and costs decreased, but he acknowledged that the JPO\u2019s interests and the company\u2019s were not always in line. The program hit several key milestones under his watch, including the Marine Corps and Air Force IOCs, but he also hit Lockheed with a unilateral contract in 2016 after the firm refused to bend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It\u2019s been an honor to serve alongside so many great leaders and support our nation and allies,” said Bogdan. “The F-35 weapon system is now operational and forward deployed. The size of the fleet continues to grow and we are rapidly expanding its capability. The F-35 will form the backbone of United States air combat superiority for decades to come and I know the program is in good hands as we transition leadership today to Vice Admiral Winter.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Winter commended Bogdan during the ceremony, saying the latter\u2019s leadership set the program on a course for success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leadership of the F-35 program passed from the Air Force to the Navy on Thursday, as the joint program office looks toward wrapping up the F-35 development program and the Navy\u2019s initial operational capability declaration in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":116205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["news","your-military"],"primary_category":""},"4":{"categories":["your-air-force","news"],"primary_category":"your-air-force"},"6":{"categories":["news"],"primary_category":""},"7":{"categories":["news"],"primary_category":""}}},"categories":[7,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3384],"class_list":["post-60272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-pentagon"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"T3GB6GDZZBHYZMZNP72JSL6UKI","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2017\/05\/25\/naval-officer-takes-over-f-35-program-as-bogdan-retires\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n