The Pentagon’s panel reviewing all things related to pay and benefits will recommend that DOD end the “pay disparity for single members,” reports Air Force Magazine contributing editor Tom Philpott. The Defense Advisory Committee on Military Compensation would stop paying more to military personnel who have dependents. However, rather than taking money from those personnel, it would raise the housing allowances for single members and eliminate the family separation allowance, according to Philpott. At a hearing last fall, panel chairman, retired Adm. Donald Pilling, noted that the commission was “struggling with” the “perceived inequity” between those who have dependents and those who don’t. The DACMC report, which is due to Pentagon leaders in April, likely would inform the upcoming 10th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation.
The U.S. supports “a stronger and more capable” European defense, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said during an Oct. 22 press conference in Brussels—but that defense should not duplicate the functions and capabilities of the NATO alliance.