Effective Oct. 1, Marines deployed to parts of the world designated as “imminent danger areas” will get a bigger monthly stipend to compensate for the risk.
According to a Marine administrative message published Tuesday, the rate for hostile fire pay will double to $450 per month, from the previous ceiling of $225 per month; and the rate for imminent danger pay will rise to $275 per month, prorated at $9.16 per day, up from $225 per month or $7.50 per day.
The change follows a move in the Pentagon’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget request to increase the caps on stipends given to troops in harm’s way. The Army and Air Force both proposed raising the caps on hostile fire or imminent danger pay, which are mutually exclusive and added to service members’ paychecks based on their duty location or deployment conditions.
Hostile fire pay, according to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, is given to troops who meet at least one of the following criteria:
- Subjected to hostile fire or explosion of a hostile mine
- On duty in an area in close proximity to a hostile fire incident and the member is in danger of being exposed to the same dangers actually experienced by other service members subjected to hostile fire or explosion of hostile mines
- Killed, injured or wounded by hostile fire, explosion of a hostile mine or any other hostile action
According to DFAS, 58 locations in the world are now designated as eligible for imminent danger pay, with 18 of those locations added to the list in February at the start of the conflict with Iran. The new designations are designed to be temporary and set to end in the third month after the end of Operation Epic Fury or “any follow-on operation directed by [the] President of the United States,” according to the accounting agency.
Sites of former conflicts, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Kosovo, among others, still retain their imminent danger designation. The Fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, now in effect, mandated a new 60-day review of imminent danger locations to ensure the accuracy of the current list, followed by a cyclical five-year review process, to begin in 2031.
The Marine Corps is the first service to move to unilaterally increase danger pay. In May, a Pentagon official told Military Times that the Department of Defense hadn’t yet committed to increasing rates for all troops.
“The department continuously evaluates its policies to ensure that they are advancing its mission,” the official said at the time. “At this time, no decision has been made to increase the current rates for hostile fire events or imminent danger pay.”
The last military-wide update to these allowances was in 2011, according to DFAS.
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