Defense News reports that US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Wednesday that “the Pentagon might be forced to cut up to 20 percent of its procurement and research-and-development budget should federal spending caps remain in place through 2014.”

Hagel sent an an eight-page letter to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Ranking Member Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., and “lobbied against sequestration caps, which would cut $52 billion from DoD’s $527 billion 2014 budget request.”

Hagel said: “I strongly oppose cuts of that magnitude because, if they remain in place for FY 2014 and beyond, the size, readiness and technological superiority of our military will be reduced, placing at much greater risk the country’s ability to meet our current national security commitments. This outcome is unacceptable as it would limit the country’s options in the event of a major new national security contingency.”

Defense News added that “DoD had to cut about $37 billion from its 2013 budget due to sequestration. The cuts have curtailed military training and prompted furloughs of hundreds of thousands of DoD civilian employees. As mandated by the Budget Control Act, Pentagon officials chopped about 10 percent from each budget account in 2013 due to sequestration. Military personnel accounts are exempt.”