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The Pentagon is preparing major United States military bases to operate for at least 90 days without outside support under a new initiative called FORTRESS, designed to keep bases running if civilian power grids, supply chains or communications fail during a major war. Under the plan, unveiled by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on September 30, 2026, and detailed in internal Pentagon documents reported on October 25, every major installation in the continental United States must be able to sustain mission-critical operations independently for at least three months.
FORTRESS stands for Federal Operations for Resilience, Troop Resources, Energy, Supply and Survivability. Its core requirement is energy independence: bases are to generate their own power through portable nuclear microreactors, large battery storage systems and islanded microgrids that can disconnect from civilian electricity networks, rather than relying on diesel backup generators that run out of fuel within days. The microreactor effort falls under the Army and Defense Innovation Unit's $2.2 billion Janus Program.
Beyond power, the plan sets wartime stockpile targets for munitions, fuel, critical minerals, electronics, spare parts and medical supplies, and requires at least two qualified domestic production pathways for every critical defense component so the loss of a single factory cannot halt operations. It also folds in the Civil Reserve Manufacturing Network, established under the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, which pre-identifies civilian factories that can convert to defense production during a crisis, with regular mobilization exercises to test readiness.
Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell has said relying on standard civilian municipal infrastructure to run national defense is an intolerable risk, and that without electricity, communications, water, logistics and assembly lines are lost. Officials say the department is assessing requirements across roughly 500 installations in the continental United States, and no deadline has been announced for meeting the full 90-day standard at every base.