Representatives from various military service organizations on Nov. 5 urged the congressionally-mandated commission on military compensation reform to take a serious look at health care spending accounts as a means of cutting costs. Commissioner Peter Chiarelli, former Army Vice Chief of Staff, said the service chiefs all have asked Congress to allow changes to the basic fee structure for Tricare for Life, but it has largely gone unchanged since the 1990s. Dick Newton, former head of personnel on the Air Staff and AFA’s executive vice president, told commissioners the Defense Department should be looking at innovative ways to meet service member needs—this could include looking at Tricare fees and cost of living adjustments. There must be a transformational approach to dealing with rising health care costs in the military, said Newton.
Unmanned aerial vehicles and autonomous aircraft may provide a solution to operating in heavily contested domains such as the Taiwan Straits, according to a panel of expert who suggested operationalizing artificial intelligence for such purposes sooner rather than later. The group gathered virtually to help launch the Mitchell Institute for…