Fox News Digital reported that a Pentagon plan would require major military installations in the continental U.S. to sustain essential operations independently for at least 90 days, a standard absent from the department’s public account.
The U.S. Department of War describes FORTRESS America as “Federal Operations for Resilience, Troop Resources, Energy, Supply, and Survivability.” The department says the initiative aims to improve installations’ ability to generate power and strengthen supply chains, but its public description does not set a 90-day benchmark.
Fox News Digital said the proposed power options could include portable nuclear reactors, large battery systems and microgrids that could isolate installations from civilian power grids. The reported standard covers electricity, water, fuel and communications.
The report said proposed reserves would include medical supplies, spare parts, electronics, critical minerals, fuel and munitions. It said reserve levels would depend on how quickly items are used and replenished, without specifying quantities. The plan would also seek two or more vetted supply sources or production channels for the military’s highest-priority dependencies and prepare civilian factories to switch to defense work.
Fox linked the effort to military reliance on civilian infrastructure and global supply chains for power, logistics, equipment and materials. It quoted Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell saying, “Power is combat now,” and described a shift away from the assumption that two oceans alone protect the U.S. homeland.
The department established its Civil Reserve Manufacturing Network in December 2025 under Section 1841 of the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act to mobilize commercial manufacturing capacity. Fox News Digital reported that FORTRESS would incorporate the network.
A separate Army effort, Janus, is pursuing microreactors for military installations. In August 2026, the Army named five vendor-installation pairings and announced up to $2.2 billion in combined awards across fiscal years 2027 through 2031. The Army said it expects more than 20 reactors across Department of War installations with private-sector funding and set September 2028 as the target for the first reactor to operate at a military installation. Its announcement did not identify Janus funding as part of FORTRESS.
