Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) beat out fellow Virginia Republican Rob Wittman and fended off a challenge by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) to secure the House Armed Services Seapower subcommittee chairmanship, vacated by former Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), Committee Chairman Buck McKeon announced Thursday. 

The White House, lawmakers and the intelligence community will now determine how much of the classified report can be shared publicly.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is pressing members of the Senate Intelligence Committee to approve the public release of a controversial review of harsh interrogation tactics used on terror suspects during the George W. Bush administration. 

The aerospace lobby on Thursday warned that the spending cuts from sequestration are likely to devastate not only the defense industry, but the civilian space program as well.

A recent report released Thursday by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) argues the automatic $500 billion budget cut slated for the Pentagon under sequestration would have a ripple effect on agencies like the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 

The close link between the military and the space sector means that a trip over the "fiscal cliff" in January would almost certainly take both civilian space agencies with them, AIA president Marion Blakey said. 

Sequestration, according to Blakey, is "the biggest single threat to our space programs’ continued success are arbitrary and capricious budget cuts.”

The former Nebraska Republican senator was among the top three finalists to be Leon Panetta's successor.

A Taliban suicide bomber struck the main gate at a key American air base in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, hours after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta visited the location during an impromptu visit to U.S. forces in the country. 

U.S. lawmakers and government officials urged Pakistan to do more to counter the threat of improvised explosive devices during a Senate hearing Thursday.

Cooperation to prevent the smuggling of IEDs and the ammonium-based fertilizer used to make them into Afghanistan has improved since U.S.-Pakistani relations hit a low point last year, but IEDs remain the top killer of NATO and Pakistani troops on both sides of the border. There have been 14,500 IED explosions and deactivations in Afghanistan so far this year, according to the Pentagon, up from 9,300 in 2009.

“Like you, I believe our Pakistani partners can and must do more,” said Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero, the director of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization at the Pentagon. “We cannot solve this IED challenge without our Pakistani partners” both in government and the chemical industry.

The House on Thursday morning voted to hold a conference with the Senate over the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which both chambers have passed.

The Senate voted on Wednesday to conference with the House, and named its conferees. The House voice-vote to conference sets up meetings that many hope can be concluded by next week, which would let the House and Senate approve a reconciled NDAA bill before Christmas.

Advocacy groups are calling on the White House to veto the defense bill over the ban on detainee transfers.