"There is an awful lot of soft-ware on this program. It scares the heck out of me." That was U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan's candid reaction to the P-35's dependence on yet-to-be-delivered software before he assumed the top spot overseeing the $390 billion program in December 2012. At that time, he was serving as the program's deputy and was just getting his head around the massive software effort behind various capability releases that would underpin the operational readiness of the three P-35 variants. The Pentagon's chief tester, Michael Gilmore, says Bogdan should be scared. Gilmore predicts in his annual operational test and evaluation report, which went to Congress Jan. 27, that software could drive an up-to-13-month delay in the readiness of the 2B capability release the Marine Corps needs for initial operational capability (IOC), planned for July 2015.
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