FBI leadership is abandoning its ambitious plans to host a pilot session of its vaunted National Academy Program at Huntsville, Alabama, instead of at Quantico, Virginia, where it is traditionally hosted, citing “insufficient infrastructure” at the bureau’s campus at Redstone Arsenal, the Sun has learned. 

The FBI National Academy Associates Inc., a nonprofit association of National Academy graduates, told members Wednesday that it was “pleased to announce” the bureau decided against hosting a pilot session at Huntsville sometime in early 2026.

“While researching the potential to conduct such a pilot in 2026, the Bureau determined there is insufficient infrastructure in place to house and host an NA class,” the FBINAA wrote in its email. 

An FBI representative did not respond to requests for comment. A FBINAA executive confirmed the FBI’s decision in a text to the Sun. 

The abandonment of the pilot program is a setback for efforts by the FBI’s new management to move many of the bureau’s staff and functions out of the greater Washington, D.C., area. The prospect of some operations moving to Huntsville, where the FBI already has a large campus, had dismayed some members of the FBI’s D.C.-centric bureaucracy.

The FBI director, Kash Patel, and the deputy director, Daniel Bongino, had set their sights on moving one class of the National Academy, a 10-week session for law enforcement professionals from around the United States and the world, sometime in early 2026. Both men issued a directive to their National Academy Unit to assemble a report on what it would take and cost the FBI to move the program to Huntsville from Quantico, where the FBI Academy is located. 

On Tuesday, the Sun reported that the decision took NAU officials “understandably by surprise,” and former FBI officials questioned whether the directive from Messrs. Patel and Bongino was motivated more by their anti-Washington bias than by common sense. 

In an interview with Maria Bartiromo on her Sunday morning Fox News show in May, Mr. Patel hailed the Redstone campus as “one of the crown jewels of the FBI.” But the FBI is faced with a more than $500 million budget cut for 2026. 

Moving the National Academy to Redstone, even for a pilot session, would come at a considerable cost, critics believe. Quantico already has the facilities needed — like lodging, dining hall, classrooms, and training staff — to run a National Academy session like clockwork, something that the Redstone campus currently lacks. The FBI would instead need to find hotel accommodations for more than 250 students, 35 of whom are traveling from outside the United States. 

New developments on its Redstone campus, which include a “Practical Problem Venues” facility, are currently on hold. During an appropriations hearing, Mr. Patel said the FBI would need an additional $160 million to complete the development at the South Campus sometime in the next three years, after which an additional 1,300 to 1,400 FBI employees will be moved to Huntsville.

Quantico offers a rich history and lore, like the “Yellow Brick Road,” a “grueling” 6.1-mile wooded trail where the opening scene of an Oscar-winning film, “The Silence of the Lambs,” was filmed. The National Academy’s proximity to the so-called Acela corridor made it easier for students to meet with the local police departments of nearby cities like New York and Philadelphia. 

“When I was running the National Academy, it was so important for me to protect the program, because it has a history … and the desire for so many people to want to come [to the Academy] is so much because of that history and lore,” a former FBI National Academy Unit chief, Cory McGookin, told the Sun.

National Academy alumni like Kristijan Ilovača, a Croatian police officer, were relieved by the FBI’s decision to keep the National Academy at Quantico. 

“I am excited,” Mr. Ilovača said in a message to the Sun.