VinRouge,
It's good news - well as good as it gets. It looks like a hybrid scheme - whatever you have accumulated up to the point we chop across to the new pension scheme you get to keep AND more importantly you get to draw as you would have done on the old scheme. Any service accrued under the new scheme will be paid out separately.
e.g. I will have done 16 years pensionable service by 2014. If I stay on until my 44 point in 2020 and then leave, I will get my AFPS 75 pension paid as normal for the 17 years service up to 2015 (or whenever it chops across) which will be uprated at 55. I then get a second chunk of pension for the remaining 5 or so years in uniform, but the rules for when that is paid out appear to be being worked out.
Could have been worse I guess. It may still be worse come the Budget if George decides to tax pension lump sums which will hammer your gratuity!