Army cuts training as service is short billions of dollars

Army cuts training as service is short billions of dollars ​

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

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.

Major drivers [of the budget shortfall], a U.S. official noted, have been costs associated with the Iran war and an expanding mission securing the southern U.S. border.

Additionally, expansive National Guard missions, including the ongoing deployment in Washington, D.C., which alone is projected to cost roughly $1.1 billion this year, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The Army's III Armored Corps, an umbrella of the Army's heavy armor and cavalry units, is expected to bear a lot of the brunt, a document outlining projections to units on consequences of funding cuts shows.

That internal plan warns that the corps' aviation units will deploy next year at "a lower state of readiness," ... and noted it would take a full year for units to rebuild "combat proficiency."

The reductions there include slashing roughly half of the formation's budget and gutting pilots' flight hours down to minimum mandatory levels.

Also among the moves: an upcoming Army Sapper Course, the service's premier combat engineering school, was canceled, while an artillery course set to begin Monday at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was abruptly called off.

[As long as we feel like cleanshaven lethal warfighters, that's the important thing.]

US Navy could run out of money by July, top officer warns​

The U.S. Navy needs an infusion of cash in the next two months to prevent interruptions in how it conducts military training and other operations, the service’s highest ranking officer told lawmakers on Tuesday.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle warned members of Congress at a budget hearing for the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense about the service’s impending budget crunch, amid the current rate of operations in the Middle East.

Army cuts dozens of medical training courses amid funding woes​