Lockheed Martin announced Wednesday that it has created three new positions within its F-35 leadership hierarchy to ensure that the next-generation fighter is successfully introduced into the Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy inventories and reaches initial operations on schedule next decade. These new program managers will provide a direct, accountable link between Lockheed and each individual service, the company said. Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. James Sandstrom is the company’s new Air Force F-35 program manager, while Stephen Weatherspoon, a retired Navy commander, is the Navy program head. The Marine Corps F-35 lead will be announced later this year. These moves come on the heels of press reports that the Pentagon’s new assessment of the F-35 program identifies cost and schedule issues that could derail the planned in-service dates for the Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy in 2012, 2013, and 2014, respectively.
The Navy should complete the business cases for its proposed alternatives to GPS navigation so that Congress can properly oversee and fund the programs, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office. The Air Force’s business-case documents for its Resilient-Embedded Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System (R-EGI), on the other…