Its been in the works for a couple of months. About two years ago, the guard and reserves both stopped pushing the pension in their recruiting paperwork. There is no reason for a person to subject themselves (voluntarily) to the full time military lifestyle without some sort of return at the end of their servce. The gov't is trying to formulate some sort of 401-ish pension scheme to keep people in long term. Their investment vehicles currently offered (in the gov't 401's) only work in a rising stock market.

There are several third and fourth order effects that will result from this sort of program being ended. Conscripts can't keep the military running.