The proposed $15.3 million range at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa., was designed for M1A1 Abrams Tank and Bradley Fighting Vehicles training. Defense officials say that the training range construction will be put on hold because of time constraints and other funding priorities despite growing public concern over an analysis of the site that showed the range's safety buffer would have to be extended onto a 900-acre Pennsylvania state game area.

"After consulting with the National Guard Bureau on the status of this project, I concluded that we have run out of time to ensure that we could commit available federal funds and begin construction of the multipurpose training range within established deadlines," Maj. Gen. Jessica Wright, Pennsylvania's state adjutant general, said in a statement.

"Exercising prudent fiscal management, I decided it was best to delay the multipurpose training range project for the time being and to shift those funds to other projects, rather than risk losing this spending authority."