Pentagon F-35 chief sees progress, but affordability still focus

A week after his drubbing of the leading contractors on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter raised eyebrows at the Pentagon, the U.S. program chief sought to maintain pressure on industry, while citing progress on software development and production costs.

U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Christopher Bogdan told a defense conference that he'd reached his quota for "juicy, controversial, headline-making quotes" for the month after lashing the plane's manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corp and enginemaker Pratt & Whitney during an air show in Australia.

Bogdan told a conference hosted by Aviation Week on Tuesday that his comments were taken "a little out of context" and he had never said the $396 billion fighter program - the Pentagon's largest weapons program - was in trouble.

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