Under the new FORTRESS program, major continental installations are expected to keep essential operations running without outside power, water, fuel, or communications.
The Pentagon is preparing every major continental U.S. military installation to keep essential operations running for at least 90 days after outside electricity, fuel, water, communications, and supply support disappear, according to documents reviewed by Fox News.
This is not a routine generator check. The War Department is building a structure to keep bases powered, stocked, armed, and connected after a cyberattack, sabotage campaign, power-grid failure, or global supply-chain rupture hits American soil.
The plan operates under FORTRESS America, which Secretary of War Pete Hegseth launched Sept. 30. Its official directive orders a Pentagon-wide push for energy independence, supply-chain resilience, strategic reserves, hardened installations, and protected space-and-spectrum capabilities.
Hegseth said major military installations would generate their own power, independent of the civilian grid. He said the Pentagon would build reserves of “munitions, fuel, medicine, blood” deep enough to keep fighting when the world’s supply lines break.
Fox reported that the 90-day readiness benchmark contemplates portable nuclear reactors, batteries, and microgrids that can cut bases loose from the civilian grid. The plans also cover critical minerals, electronics, spare parts, medical supplies, and redundant supply routes for vital defense goods.
DefenseScoop reported that the Pentagon has already stood up a FORTRESS America Program Office to implement the policy.
The Pentagon is preparing to endure the kind of disruption that ends ordinary life: no grid, no dependable imports, and no guarantee that civilian infrastructure remains standing. The public should read the 90-day requirement for what it is — a serious military readiness posture for a crisis that Washington no longer treats as remote.