Man with a mission

When I first met Vice Admiral David Venlet, the new head of the JSF Program Office (JPO) at a media brief and Q&A the day before the Avalon Airshow, I was immediately struck by his composure and quietly spoken demeanour, traits that are common to many former fighter pilots who have advanced in their careers successfully.

But I quickly found myself somewhat frustrated by his reluctance to speculate on what might happen with the program – all of his comments and answers were carefully measured and considered, he often deferred to his host and Australia’s JSF program head AVM Kym Osley, and he wouldn’t be drawn on what may or may not happen on the program going forward. I momentarily caught myself thinking that, apart from the opportunity to meet him and get some ‘face time’ for Australian Aviation and ADBR, the content of the briefing was going to be a bit of a waste of time.