Navy leaders got their wish when Pentagon leaders absolved the service's civilian shipbuilding cadre from mandatory furloughs. 

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The Russian Foreign Ministry said the incident could harm U.S.-Russian relations as the countries cooperate on a Syrian peace summit.  

The Pentagon will begin furloughing most of its nearly 800,000 civilian employees on July 8.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) is weighing possible amendments to the Pentagon's fiscal year 2014 budget plan as a vehicle to change the rules governing U.S. counterterrorism operations. 

Defense giant Lockheed Martin is looking outside the United States for new business as it scrambles to make up millions of dollars in lost sales from sequestration.

The American weapons maker wants to bolster its international sales portfolio up to 20 percent over the next fiscal year, Lockheed Martin President and CEO Marillyn Hewson said Tuesday.

"The global security map is being redrawn ... [and] we recognize that we are in an intense budget environment," she said.

The move is part of Lockheed's strategy to mitigate damage to its bottom line from the budget cuts under sequestration and from the overall reduction in military spending since the post-9/11 boom.

Four American soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday as U.S. and coalition forces dig in for the final fighting season of the over decade-long war. 

The State Department is refuting a new federal audit that found U.S. firms improperly paid almost $1 billion in Afghan taxes, calling its conclusions “not supported” and claiming its recommendations “may undercut” bilateral negotiations.

Tuesday's report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) found that Afghanistan over the past five years has levied more than $921 million in business taxes and penalties on 43 U.S. reconstructions contractors, in violation of agreements between the two countries. The report urges the State Department and Congress to take action, if need be by penalizing taxation of U.S. foreign assistance funding to the war-torn country.

“It's disturbing that the Afghan government is targeting American contractors with unjust taxes and intimidation,” Special Inspector General John Sopko said in a statement accompanying the report. “It's even more disturbing that US agencies are letting it happen – all at the expense of American taxpayers, who have already shouldered a heavy burden on Afghan reconstruction. This needs to end.”

President Obama will announce in the coming weeks the number of combat troops that will be withdrawn from Afghanistan next year, Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday in Stockholm.

"Very shortly, not too long from now, the president does intend to make public what his plans are for post-2014," Kerry told reporters, according to Reuters.

Earlier this year, Obama announced that he would bring home some 34,000 troops by next February, effectively halving the American military presence in Afghanistan. But the administration has not yet said  how many troops will remain at the end of 2014; as many as 15,000 service members could stay behind to provide training and support to Afghan security forces.

When sequestration took effect in March, the Pentagon had warned it would furlough civilians as many as 22 days.