WASHINGTON — A Senate panel today approved a freeze in military spending at $513 billion for the next military budget, including a $1.6 billion cut in funds that the Pentagon says it doesn’t need for Afghanistan security forces even as the U.S. embassy in Kabul came under attack.

By voice vote, the Appropriations defense subcommittee gave the go-ahead to the sweeping legislation that would slash $26 billion from President Barack Obama’s request for the Defense Department in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

The bill is a reflection of the congressional clamor for fiscal belt-tightening and stands as the first installment in defense cuts of $350 billion over a decade as spelled out in the deficit-cutting compromise worked out by Obama and congressional Republicans last month.

Base military spending has nearly doubled in the 10 years since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, with the Pentagon getting just about everything it sought. That money is separate from the more than $1 trillion the nation has spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.