Pentagon Intros ‘Fortress’ Program To Improve Readiness of All Military Bases

The Pentagon is moving ahead with an ambitious homeland-defense initiative aimed at ensuring major U.S. military installations can continue operating for at least 90 days without outside support if war, cyberattacks, or sabotage disrupt the civilian infrastructure surrounding them.Known as FORTRESS America, the initiative would require major military installations in the continental United States to independently sustain essential operations for at least three months, including electricity, water, fuel, and communications.The strategy represents a significant change in Pentagon planning by preparing American bases not only to support military operations overseas but also to withstand potentially severe disruptions inside the United States.FORTRESS stands for Federal Operations for Resilience, Troop Resources, Energy, Supply and Survivability, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth formally unveiled the initiative during his Sept. 30 “State of the Force” address at Marine Corps Base Quantico.Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said the military’s reliance on conventional civilian infrastructure creates a potentially dangerous vulnerability because an adversary could target electrical grids, communications networks and other critical systems during a major conflict.“We don’t want to rely on standard civilian municipal infrastructure to run our national defense,” Parnell told Fox News Digital, describing that dependence as an “intolerable risk.”Electricity is among the Pentagon’s biggest concerns because virtually every modern military capability depends on reliable power, including command centers, communications, logistics operations and weapons production.Under FORTRESS America, major installations would eventually be capable of generating their own electricity rather than relying entirely on the civilian power grid.Defense officials are examining technologies including portable nuclear reactors, large-scale battery storage and microgrids that could disconnect military installations from surrounding civilian electrical systems during prolonged outages.“Mission-critical power must be independent, hardened, and redundant,” Parnell said.The initiative extends beyond electricity, with planners preparing for disruptions involving fuel, water, communications, medical supplies, weapons production and the domestic and international supply chains necessary to sustain American forces.