Critics say military pensions should be made a special case Downing Street has rejected calls to protect the armed forces from cuts to public sector pensions.
A spokesman for prime minister David Cameron’s spokesman said “tough decisions” were needed and the policy decision had been made.
The Forces Pension Society claims widows and injured soldiers face losing hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Ministers plan to link public sector pension rises to an alternative, and historically lower, inflation measure.
Widows who remarry or move in with a new partner will lose their military pensions.
The Forces Pensions Society calculates that the inflation link – which affects pensions and annual guaranteed income payments – mean a 34-year-old wife of a staff sergeant killed in Afghanistan could lose almost £750,000 over her lifetime.
Writing in the Times, the society’s head, Vice Admiral Sir Michael Moore, said: “It is so easy for Mr Cameron to extol the forces at every opportunity … but his words will have a hollow ring unless he addresses these issues personally.
“His ministers do not understand, show no inclination of wanting to do so and appear to be rendered impotent and mesmerised by the Treasury.”
The move was also criticised by former Labour defence secretary Lord Hutton – the man the government appointed to oversee a review of public sector pensions – in his maiden speech in the House of Lords.
He said linking the military pension to the consumer price index, rather than the retail price index, would mean war widows and the injured would get smaller payments in future, which he said was “wrong”.
But a Downing Street spokeswoman said the military could not be exempt from changes affecting the public sector.
“A policy decision has been made,” she said.
“The prime minister has the highest regard for the armed forces and their families but tough decisions had to be made in this particular respect.”
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