A House subcommittee is recommending raising the cost cap on the Navy's Ford-class aircraft carrier by $1.2 billion, pushing the total cost of the project to $12.9 billion, according to a draft of the subcommittee's fiscal year 2014 defense authorization mark released today.

The Pentagon is seeking $6.4 billion in additional weapons procurement spending in fiscal year 2014 as part of a $79.4 billion overseas contingency operations spending request the Obama administration sent to lawmakers on Friday.

The Defense Department has provided Congress two reprogramming requests totaling $9.6 billion, according to a cover letter sent to Congress today by Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale.

Army Test and Evaluation Command is set to furlough 4,400 civilian employees, throwing a wrench into the schedules and budgets of a host of programs, according to an ATEC statement.

Navy submarine programs had specific cuts in fiscal year 2013 to both the Virginia-class attack submarine and Ohio-class replacement ballistic missile submarine programs due to sequestration, according to a service official.

The Air Force budget office this year will implement a new approach to its money management process and begin making reprogramming decisions based on future needs rather than current ones.

As lawmakers prepare to mark up the fiscal year 2014 defense spending and policy bills, congressional defense committees are expected to follow the Defense Department's lead in ignoring the possibility of sequestration cuts.

The Defense Department has asked Congress for the authority to distribute up to $100 million worth of excess U.S. military equipment in Afghanistan to countries that have supported the Northern Distribution Network, according to a legislative proposal sent to Congress.

The Pentagon is seeking $39.6 billion for information technology in the upcoming fiscal year with an eye toward increasing defensive cyberspace capabilities and developing the joint cyber force under a new planning model, according to newly issued budget documents.

The quality of cost estimates prepared by the services for major weapon systems is improving, according to a new report from the Pentagon's top cost estimator.

The Marine Corps will take a $300 million hit in fiscal year 2014 if sequestration cuts are applied, with $250 million coming from procurement dollars and about $50 million from research and development funding, according to the Navy's acquisition chief.

The automatic spending cuts triggered by sequestration are poised to delay testing of the Army-Marine Corps Joint Light Tactical Vehicle by three to four months, according to the Army's top uniformed acquisition official.

The Navy is about $300 million short of adding a 10th destroyer to its multiyear procurement contract for Arleigh Burke-class destroyers for fiscal years 2013 to 2017, due to be awarded by June 4, Navy acquisition executive Sean Stackley said last week. Still, Stackley said that if Congress can find the money, the Navy will be able to exercise an option to add that 10th ship to the multiyear contract in 2014.

Navy officials last week painted a picture of a shipbuilding plan that, while firm in its construction, is vulnerable to sequestration cuts that would run past fiscal year 2013, cost overruns and schedule slips.

The Pentagon's future spending plans, which could be upended within weeks by a high-level internal review, boost annual weapons procurement spending between by nearly 3 percent above inflation over the next five fiscal years, from $99.3 billion in FY-14 to $114.2 billion in FY-18, according to a newly released Pentagon forecast.

The United States needs to increase long-term federal investment in high-technology industries, develop domestic sources of key natural resources and better apply laws aimed at supporting the defense industrial base in order to become less dependent on importing essential items needed for national security, according to a new report by the Alliance for American Manufacturing.

The Defense Department's secretive Strategic Choices and Management Review is supported by 18 working groups examining the full spectrum of spending choices that DOD must confront given the looming threat of additional budget cuts, according to military and industry sources familiar with the process.

Army readiness is at risk due to fiscal constraints that could impact the service's ability to respond to emergencies quickly with a tailored force, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno warned today.

As the Navy puts together its fiscal year 2015 budget request, it is focused on keeping "the best program in total" from the warfare systems perspective and is not focused on stovepipe systems, according to Vice Adm. William Burke, deputy chief of naval operations for warfare systems.

The leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee have called on Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to outline by July 1 how the Pentagon's fiscal year 2014 budget would be cut by $52 billion, as required under sequestration.