House Armed Services Committee NDAA Draft Spills Secrets: 5 Must-Know Changes That Just Leaked.
- Massive Pay Raise for Junior Troops: The new draft proposes a historic 19.5% pay bump for E-1 to E-4 soldiers, aimed at tackling the military’s recruitment crisis and poverty-level wages for lower ranks.
- Nightmare for Pentagon’s China Office: Buried in the bill, a sneaky amendment cuts $50 million from the Office of Strategic Capital, forcing the China-focused tech fund to hit the brakes on its AI and drone investments.
- Gender-Affirming Care Ban for Minors: A shocker for progressives—the NDAA now includes a blanket prohibition on Tricare covering gender-affirming surgeries or hormone therapies for transgender children of service members.
- Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Nightmare: The committee quietly inserted a clause that could freeze next-year F-35 Lightning II production if the contractor fails to hit a "performance-to-cost" metric—a direct shot at its over-budget, underperforming engine upgrades.
- Cyber Security for Home Bases: A new "Digital Fortress" requirement forces every U.S. military base to install zero-trust network architecture by 2026, sparked by last year's drone swarms that hacked into a base Wi-Fi coffee machine.