The "traditional" defined benefit pension plan had several major flaws that resulted in its being phased out in favor of the 401K and other plans.
1. Problems with vesting-when was the beneficiary guaranteed the benefits. Too many companies have become notorious for letting employees go before they were vested in the pension plan.
2. No inflation proofing or COLA benefits.
3. No flexibility in payments.
4. Often-probably- no survivor benefits. The pension died with the beneficiary, the estate received nothing. Sounds rather like Social Security, doesn't it?
This sounds like another attempt by the bean counters and quantification quacks and their liberal allies to use the Defense budget as a cash cow to pay for social programs.