Military retirement is based on a 20 year term. Unless you get out under a special program you get nothing. The article says only 15% of servicemembers get that far. At 20 years you get 50% of your base pay. Base pay is a majority if your pay, but far from a vast majority. I would imagine it would be about 30% of your total compensation including housing and subsistence allowances. Additionally, you go from free healthcare to a very low premium healthcare. One of the expensive parts is that you draw your retirement right away, no matter how young you are. Somebody who enlists at 18 can retire at 38 and then draw that retirement for the next 35 years if they make it to the current life expectancy.
Federal retirement is a different type of beast. I went from the miltary to federal service and I don't know very many people who quit once they have a more than a few years in. The ones I have seen quit were other pilots, who can make more money on the outside. So you have a huge percentage of employees who are staying until retirement. You are also vested after 5 years, so even if you quit you will eventually start drawing something. The four rent fed retirement is a three component deal. A defined annuity, a 401k type account, and Social Security. The annuity is 1% x total number of years x highest three total salaries. that means about 30% for most career employees. Law enforcement has a higher rate than that because of a mandatory retirement age. One thing fed retirement does have is minimum ages to retire so of you don't see people retiring at 40. Retired fed employees still get medical at the same premium structure they had while working until they are Medicare eligible. Fed employees also contribute some of their pay to the defined portion, a small percentage compared to the government. Their 401k is matched up to 5%, but it seams most employees put about 10% of their pay into that.
Both systems are expensive, but most people don't begrudge miltary retirees their retirement. Fed employees are reviled, regardless of what they do. There are too many of us. I think a 15% RIF would be a good start.
Sorry about the typing errors. Auto correct is crushing me on my iPad.
Just out of curiosity I looked at an LES from shortly before I retired. On deployment, base pay was 58% of my total pay, 62% upon return and losing HFP/IDP and FSA. More than I thought, but still quite a bit less than union public employees who are getting pensions based on their entire pay at retirement.