The 8.4 million dollars is not of great importance. What is important is how the man with a rifle in hand next to you will perform in combat. If they are transgendered by definition they have great psychological problems.
I want Bubba next to me in combat. I do not want a Brenda that used to be Bubba nor a Brenda that is now Bubba. It is all about killing the enemy. I want the person next to me without any psychological problems with the exception of an insane compelling hate and fury driven desire to kill the enemy.
If that Bubba is in your corner, you may live to see the next day. War is ugly and not the place for social experiments. An Army, Navy, and Air Force is designed to be a keen killing machine. Anything that degrades their ability to kill is not good!
Looking at the makeup and location of the Rand corporation- I wouldn’t trust that 8.4 million dollar number at all. The wasted man hours on sensitivity training alone has to be a multiple of that.