For those who follow defense-spending issues, a fresh bout started Thursday between advocates of military spending cuts and conservative defense hawks. And it’s shaping up as a preview of a larger fight over how much, exactly, to cut from defense as part of a deficit-reduction deal.

In one corner: Taxpayers for Common Sense and the Project on Government Oversight. The two advocacy groups today issued a list of items they say could be safely cut from the defense budget without harming national security.

Among their recommendations: Terminating one version of the Navy’s shore-hugging Littoral Combat Ship; deferring development of the Air Force’s next-generation bomber; and withdrawing 20,000 U.S. troops from Europe. The two groups also recommended halting construction of some nuclear weapons facilities, along with a reduction of the military’s dependence on service contractors. …

In the opposing corner, we have Defending Defense, a joint project of the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Foreign Policy Initiative, all conservative think tanks.