My simple pilot brain is struggling to understand how the state pension works. I've run through the calculator and its saying that I will get the full 155.65 in about 30 years time when I eventually hit retirement age (assuming I haven't died of liver failure). The amount is made up of state pension and something called COPE. But it seems that when the COPE, which appears to be the private contribution towards your pension from your contracted out scheme, goes up then the state pension amount goes down. In simple terms, I always assumed (maybe wrongly) that when I hit retirement age I would get my Armed Forces pension (amounts as per the estimate on the AFPS online calculator) plus a state pension (based on NI contributions) but the GOV.UK estimate site seems to suggest they will wind back my state pension if the AFPS amount is big enough. Is this correct or am I misunderstanding this?