Members of the Defense Innovation Board have called on the Defense Department to consider developing new career options to help address department-wide personnel management issues, DoD Buzz reported Tuesday.

Eight DIB members met Tuesday to discuss DoD’s talent management challenges and potential ways to overcome them.

Jennifer Pahlka, DIB member and founder of Code for America, said DoD’s “up or out” personnel system poses a talent management challenge because it can be “very limiting.”

The system gives DoD personnel two years to develop ideas then move to another position, which compels employees to abandon their ideas instead of pursuing them, Pahlka noted.

DIB members believe a parallel career track will help keep talented individuals from being stuck in the up-or-out system, the report stated.

Marne Levine, chief operating officer of Instagram, said DoD should also look into a new career field that is focused on innovation; rapid capability development and acquisition; and science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills.

Levine added that DoD faces recruitment and retention challenges due to the lack of a specialized STEM career field.

Shay Assad, director of defense pricing at the Defense Department, has said DoD has started a comprehensive cost review of the Lockheed Martin-built F-35 aircraft to help officials find ways on how to further reduce the cost of the fighter jet, Defense News reported Tuesday.

Assad told the publication Monday a DoD assessment team will collaborate with F-35 contractors Lockheed, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems to discuss the parameters of the review that would take a year to conclude.

“Many of the things we’re talking about are just practices that have occurred in the past, this will just be much more rigorous,” Assad said.

“So we’ll lay it out with the companies… Here’s our plan in terms of your subcontractor base, and this is what we want to do, and then get off and get the work done,” he added.

Assad said he believes Lockheed can still further reduce the per unit price of an F-35A variant than the current goal of $80 million per aircraft by 2020, the report added.

The U.S. Air Force plans to deploy 300 airmen and 12 F-35A Lightning II aircraft from Hill Air Force Base in Utah to Kadena Air Base in Japan, marking the U.S. Pacific Command‘s first operation tasked to the F-35A fleet.

The aircraft are expected to arrive at Kadena in November to begin a six-month rotation, PACOM said Monday.

The deployment is part of PACOM’s Theater Security Package program, which aims to demonstrate U.S. efforts to contribute to security in the Asia-Pacific region.

Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, Pacific Air Forces commander, noted that the fleet will work to integrate the F-35A into training and operations.

PACOM noted the assignment to Kadena follows the stealth aircraft’s debut at the Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition in October.

Defense Secretary James Mattis met with his Southeast Asian counterparts at the former Clark Air Base in the Philippines to discuss security challenges and defense cooperation in the region, DoD News reported Monday.

Pentagon spokesperson Dana White said Mattis attended the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ Defense Ministers Meeting-Plus where defense leaders talked about regional security; counterterrorism efforts; and the need to impose sanctions against North Korea in response to the country’s nuclear tests.

Mattis said the ASEAN nations want to increase the scope and complexity of defense exercises and that the U.S. government works with regional partners to boost maritime security capacity in Southeast Asia, according to White.

The defense secretary also participated in the ninth Trilateral Defense Ministerial meeting with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts to discuss security cooperation and condemn North Korea’s nuclear and missile activities.

The three defense leaders agreed to bolster international cooperation on the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions, including a resolution to impose sanctions against North Korea following its sixth nuclear test on Sept. 3.

The ministers voiced support for efforts to expand information sharing on North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats as well as continue missile warning and anti-submarine warfare exercises.