Defense Secretary Ash Carter unveiled the “first tranche” of his Force of the Future initiatives Wednesday. They included none of the costly or controversial ideas that his personnel chief had brainstormed with experts.

No end to the up-or-out promotion system.

No dramatic “on-ramps” to military service at midgrade.

No structural changes to the pay chart.

No expansion of parental leave.

No new “technical career” path for high-demand skills.

No new diversity tools like requiring that 25 percent of service members on selection and promotion boards be women or minorities.

No two-year test of a race-and-gender-blind promotion process, removing names, photos and pronouns from promotion packets.

No “mother” rooms on every base to ensure comfort while nursing.

No changes aimed broadly at enhancing quality of life for families.

The initiatives instead are no- or low-cost commitments that the Department of Defense will work smarter and try more modern ideas for attracting, nurturing and assigning its military and civilian work forces.

It will use social media, analytics and exit surveys to better identify talent or to learn why good people leave. It will encourage more frequent interactions with industry, double the number of internships with industry and allow more sabbaticals from service life so members can start families, seek degrees or care for an ill parent as civilians – before resuming long-term career goals.

“While the military cannot and should not replicate all aspects of the private sector, we can and should borrow best practices, technologies and personnel management techniques in commonsense ways that work for us,” Carter said.

His package of initiatives falls far short of being “the most far-reaching personnel reforms . since the all-volunteer force,” as one senior defense official tried to spin it Wednesday.

The Force of the Future actions are but a ripple of change compared to the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 or the Defense Officer Management Act of 1980. Indeed, Congress and federal courts continue to drive the most critical personnel policy changes.

Two years ago, Congress created the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission and used its findings this year to reform military retirement. And next year, congressional leaders promise to reform the military health system.

Against such shifts, Carter’s plans appear pale and scattershot.

“I was disappointed that there weren’t more things related to the current military, especially families,” said Joyce Wessel Raezer, executive director of the National Military Family Association. “The only thing mentioned really family related was (more members) choosing their own reason to take a sabbatical.”

Brad Carson, acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, did propose more sweeping or cutting-edge changes but failed to win service support for them. Also the projected costs were deemed worrisome.

By the time Carter unveiled Force of the Future details in a speech at George Washington University, he decided to add some heft by including the new retirement plan with government matching and early vesting in a portable 401(k)-like Thrift Saving Plan. That’s old news to the current force.

Carter perhaps discovered that it’s easier to talk of modernizing military and federal civilian personnel systems than to make substantive changes. That’s true in an era of tight budgets, when service branches are satisfied with their own personnel initiatives and when the administration pressing for change is entering its final year.

In a Nov. 18 memorandum to service secretaries, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and defense agency directors, Carter recounted his Force of the Future journey so far, explaining that Carson “exceeded my expectations, providing a package of bold proposals that could change departmental personnel policies and procedures in unprecedented ways. Several (would) expand on what the services are already doing to modernize their personnel practices.”

Others “are new and complex,” Carter wrote, “and require additional study to ensure they are implemented in a deliberate and durable manner.” So he tasked his deputy secretary and the vice chairman of the joint chiefs to lead a Force of the Future Implementation Group. Meeting twice weekly, it has been assessing Carson’s proposals against wartime readiness needs and cost. Carter wants the work completed by Dec. 15.

Working with the services, the implementation group recommended the ideas Carter approved and unveiled last week.

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