Troops deployed to combat zones could see their hostile fire and imminent danger pay double — from $225 to $450 per month — as early as October 1, 2026. The proposal is buried in the Pentagon’s FY2027 budget request, and it’s advancing through Capitol Hill budget hearings right now. As of May 5, 2026, no final decision has been made.
Two separate but overlapping tracks are driving the push. The first is a 60-day review mandated by Section 614 of the FY2026 NDAA, signed into law December 18, 2025. The second is a line item in the Air Force’s FY2027 budget presentation — one that explicitly states the Pentagon has “increased Hostile Fire Pay and Imminent Danger Pay rates to the maximum statutory threshold,” effective the start of FY2027. That ceiling, $450 per month, is already written into U.S. Code. Congress would need to approve the funding, not rewrite the law.
What the Numbers Look Like Now
Under the current system, service members earn $7.50 per day for each day spent in a designated Imminent Danger Pay (IDP) area, capped at $225 per month. Hostile Fire Pay (HFP) pays the full $225 monthly rate when a unit commander certifies a hostile incident occurred. Troops get one or the other — not both.
The $225 ceiling was temporarily established in 2003 and made permanent through the FY2004 NDAA. Congress temporarily raised it from $110 during the early Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns, then made the increase permanent in the FY2004 NDAA. That means service members have gone more than two decades without a rate adjustment.
If the FY2027 proposal clears Congress, the per-day IDP rate would effectively rise to $15 per day, with a new monthly cap of $450.
Where the Review Stands — and Where It Could Expand
The NDAA-mandated review is examining whether additional regions should be added to the DFAS-designated eligible areas list — which currently covers 59 locations. The last major updates came in 2023, when the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, Gaza Strip, Gulf of Aden, Red Sea, and Ukraine were added.
Then came Operation Epic Fury. When it launched February 28, 2026, the DFAS list expanded immediately — adding several countries and bodies of water tied to U.S. operations against Iranian targets, including, but not limited to, the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Persian Gulf airspace, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Azerbaijan, the Arabian Sea, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, parts of the Indian Ocean, and the airspace over Iran itself, where a land designation has existed since November 4, 1979. A March 10, 2026 DFAS table update formalized those additions. A follow-on hazardous duty pay update came after a March 20 Iranian missile strike targeting the Diego Garcia area.
Those Operation Epic Fury additions are separate from the NDAA review. The 60-day review — which was to begin no later than March 1, 2026 — is evaluating the broader global threat picture for areas not yet designated.
“The department continuously evaluates its policies to ensure that they are advancing its mission. At this time, no decision has been made to increase the current rates for hostile fire event or imminent danger pay.” — Pentagon spokesperson, told Military Times, May 5, 2026
An Air Force spokesperson separately confirmed to Task & Purpose that the FY2027 budget request includes a “new proposed rate” of $450 maximum and that implementation details remain under review. Air Force budget documents describe the increases as “aimed at recruiting and retaining warfighters.”
The Five-Year Review Cycle — A Structural Change
Apart from the rate question, the FY2026 NDAA made a structural change to how the eligible-areas list gets updated going forward. For the first time, Congress established a routine five-year review cycle beginning in 2031. Previously, designations were added or removed on an ad hoc basis — often lagging the actual threat environment by months or years. The 2031 cycle is meant to keep the list current without requiring troops or advocates to push Congress each time a new region becomes dangerous.
What Troops Should Do Right Now
Check your Leave and Earnings Statement (LES) if you’re deployed to any region added since February 2026. IDP is paid only for days actually spent in a designated area — if your deployment started before a designation was added, confirm your unit finance office has applied the correct retroactive start date. For Operation Epic Fury areas, the effective date is February 28, 2026. The Diego Garcia-area hazardous duty pay adjustment tracks to March 20, 2026.
Reserve and Guard members are eligible for HFP/IDP on the same terms as active duty. If you’re contributing tax-exempt combat pay to the TSP, note the 2026 annual additions limit is $72,000 — that figure is not subject to the standard elective deferral cap.
Watch the FY2027 NDAA markup hearings. If the $450 rate clears Congress, it takes effect October 1, 2026. Individual service members don’t need to do anything — the rate change would be applied automatically through DFAS payroll systems.
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