Airmen submitted more than 11,000 cost-reducing ideas during the Every Dollar Counts campaign, a month-long initiative that allowed airmen to recommend areas of savings for the Air Force, according to a service release. Of those recommendations, 38 percent had to do with personnel policy, 23 percent involved logistics and installation support, and 11 percent dealt with changes in information technology, according to the June 5 release. “Today’s fiscal constraints are the tightest our Air Force has experienced in many years,” wrote Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Larry Spencer in a June 5 letter thanking airmen for their ideas. “Your overwhelming response during the Airmen Powered by Innovation Call for Ideas has emboldened us all with confidence that our Air Force will persevere through these tough times and emerge a more effective and efficient fighting force for America.”
As the Pentagon increasingly pivots its focus to strategic competition with China, the U.S. will look to expand its partnership with South Korea to increase security across the entire Indo-Pacific region, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said Dec. 2 during a visit to the northeastern Asian nation.