Vantor/Getty Images
© 2026 Blaze Media LLC. All rights reserved.
The Pentagon believes U.S. military bases must be able to operate without help from civilian resources.
Government officials called it an "intolerable risk" to have key installations be dependent on supply lines that could potentially be cut off in a time of war; and now they're doing something about it.
'Power is combat now.'
To remedy the situation, the Pentagon is implementing a new strategy that seeks to keep its facilities prepared for life under a full-blown global war.
The program, called FORTRESS America — Federal Operations for Resilience, Troop Resources, Energy, Supply, and Survivability — requires every major military facility in the continental United States to be capable of being fully operational without outside support for 90 days, United 24 Media reported.
This includes being self-sustaining when it comes to resources like water, electricity, fuel, and communications.
Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell told Fox News Digital that relying on standard civilian infrastructure is something the military cannot accept.
"We just simply can't. It's an intolerable risk," Parnell said.
Much of the dependence will rely on the creation of independent power structures in the event that the public grid is inaccessible or disabled.
"Power is combat now," Parnell continued. "Without electricity, you lose communications, water, logistics, assembly lines, and just basic military command structures."
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The energy action plan would allegedly utilize portable nuclear reactors, battery storage en masse, and microgrids that can disconnect from the civilian grid and operate outside the general public's energy consumption.
"Mission-critical power must be independent, hardened, and redundant," Parnell said.
The government official described the situation the United States is facing as vastly different from a past belief that it was protected by its massive natural deterrent: the oceans.
"I realized that a lot of the way we think about homeland defense was built around the antiquated assumption that two oceans would protect us," Parnell explained. "President Trump understands that world is gone, and he's already paved the way for new thinking: Golden Dome, a renewed focus on the Western Hemisphere, Greenland, Panama."
Kent NISHIMURA/AFP/Getty Images
Following the logic that "global supply chains will break" during any forthcoming major war, the Pentagon has also planned to assess whether or not civilian factories can shift to defense production and how long they can operate that way.
This includes preparing alternative supply chains and ensuring that there is space to reserve and preserve weapons or fuel, for example.
The plan also reportedly includes determining whether these manufacturers are properly protected against cyberattacks, with the intention of preparing them for such a scenario rather than waiting for an event to happen.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Want to leave a tip?
We answer to you. Help keep our content free of advertisers and big tech censorship by leaving a tip today.
