Army cuts training as service is short billions of dollars

[mahatmakanejeeves]

The story is two weeks old, but for some reason, CNN revived it this morning.

Army cuts training as service is short billions of dollars

The Army faces a shortfall of between $4-$6 billion, one official said.

By Steve Beynon
May 13, 2026, 5:13 AM ET • 6 min read

The Army is grappling with a sudden budget crunch and scrambling to slash training costs across broad swaths of the force, according to internal documents reviewed by ABC News and multiple U.S. officials.

The move is to make up for a shortfall of some $4 billion to $6 billion, according to one of the officials, as the service has drastically expanded its operational footprint at home and abroad.

The cuts, which range from elite schools to unit-level training, have triggered a wave of abrupt cancellations and unusually aggressive spending scrutiny months before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30.


Secretary of War Pete Hegseth prepares to testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the FY2027 budget request on Capitol Hill, May 12, 2026 in Washington.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

The service's multibillion-dollar shortfall is the product of a widening set of operational demands and rising costs across the force. ... Major drivers, a U.S. official noted, have been costs associated with the Iran war and an expanding mission securing the southern U.S. border.

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Here's CNN from this morning. If we wait three days, The Independent will pick up the story, at which point it will appear in LBN.

Politics • 4 min read
Iran war spending drains US military budgets, triggering cancelled trainings, delayed maintenance

By Davis Winkie
1 hr 31 min ago
PUBLISHED May 27, 2026, 5:00 AM ET


Two soldiers assigned to III Armored Corps Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion conduct an obstacle course on Fort Cavazos, Texas, March 25, 2025. (Spc. Brandi Frizzell/US Army)

The Pentagon is feeling the financial squeeze and is struggling in some cases to carry out routine training and maintenance amid its ongoing operations against Iran, with uniformed military leaders pressing Congress to support additional funding. ... The Navy’s top officer, Adm. Daryl Caudle, told House Armed Services Committee lawmakers earlier this month that his 2026 budget “didn’t bake in [Operation] Epic Fury” and that the Navy faces impacts on “routine operations” as a result.

That includes having to limit training exercises, flight training hours and training for new recruits, he said. ... “My record recruiting is going to be thwarted without additional funding to [move] those individuals from boot camp and to pay enlistment and reenlistment bonuses,” Caudle told lawmakers.

The Army’s III Armored Corps, a Texas-based headquarters that oversees roughly 70,000 troops and hundreds of tanks, saw a nearly $292 million cut to its training budget in late April, according to an internal document reviewed by CNN. ABC News was first to report on the cuts.

The service’s medical schoolhouse cancelled dozens of courses and eliminated centralized funding for others, according to an April 27 memo also reviewed by CNN. ... The Pentagon declined to comment for this story.

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