Army Reduces Training, Tightens Spending as Fiscal Year Ends Amid Higher Fuel Costs and Border Mission Expenses

U.S. official and internal documents reviewed by ABC News. The cuts range from elite schools to unit-level training and have triggered a wave of abrupt cancellations and unusually aggressive spending scrutiny months before the fiscal year ends on September 30.

U.S. official said. The service has drastically expanded its operational footprint at home and abroad while absorbing ballooning personnel expenses and covering missions tied to Department of Homeland Security funding lapses, including at the southern border and construction projects.

U.S. 1 billion this year, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The Army is expected to be reimbursed for covering some of DHS' expenses incurred during the record 76-day DHS shutdown.

The Army's III Armored Corps commands some 70,000 soldiers and represents nearly half of the service's combat power. A document outlining projections to units shows the formation is expected to bear a lot of the brunt of the funding cuts. Those reductions include slashing roughly half of the formation's budget and gutting pilots' flight hours down to minimum mandatory levels.

An upcoming Army Sapper Course was canceled. An artillery course set to begin Monday at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was abruptly called off.

U.S. Officials explained. "Army commanders are taking all necessary measures to prioritize critical readiness and operational requirements, ensuring we operate responsibly within our currently enacted funding levels," Col. Marty Meiners, an Army spokesperson, said in a statement.

The standard fuel price for the services has increased from $154 to $195 a barrel, according to the department. The cuts come amid those skyrocketing fuel costs, which can quickly drive up the price of large-scale training exercises, aviation operations and travel. It remains unclear whether those soaring costs are directly behind the moves now rippling through Army commands.

5 trillion budget. The Pentagon's belt-tightening measures were briefly mentioned on Capitol Hill during that hearing.

"That's more we have to pay for fuel. Then there's less money available for training and exercise that the services need to perform," she added. ABC News reported that scaling back training late in the summer as the fiscal year winds down is relatively routine inside the Pentagon.

Officials say it is far less common to see such sweeping cuts and cancellations this early in the budget cycle. The Defense Department declined to say whether similar training cuts are being made across the military or are largely confined to the Army.