The top Pentagon health affairs official, William Winkenwerder, believes the Defense Department’s new plan to merge—where it can—elements of the military health care system will make a good system better. He told American Forces Press Service: “Our system does work well now; we have great outcomes in battlefield medicine and in the care of our wounded—the best in history. … “We have a clear set of ideas that things can work even better.” The Pentagon plans to create a transition team to work toward “major changes in governance” by 2009.
Secretary of Defense Austin Lloyd III met with his counterparts from Australia, Japan and the Philippines to discuss bolstering defense ties on May 2. The discussion included plans for joint F-35 exercises with Japan and Australia in the coming years.