The Pentagon is preparing US military bases to operate for 90 days without outside help in case of a major war. The FORTRESS plan aims to protect military operations from power cuts, supply shortages and disruptions to key infrastructure. Here is eveyything we know.
Pentagon had already announced plans to make major military bases less dependent on civilian power grids. As per documents reviewed by Fox News Digital, the plan is part of a wider military initiative called FORTRESS. Its aim is to make sure American forces can keep fighting even if the civilian systems they depend on stop working.
The new 90-day rule goes further by covering other essential services needed to keep the bases running.
“You don’t want to be making these decisions in the middle of a global multi-front conflict. As per Fox News, he described FORTRESS as an insurance policy for the US.
We have to have a plan,” Parnell said.
Every major military base in the continental United States would be expected to run key operations on its own for at least 90 days, according to Fox News. This includes electricity, water, fuel and communications. Parnell also spoke about how the thinking on homeland defense has changed. “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. “Power is combat now. FORTRESS looks at portable nuclear reactors, large battery storage and microgrids. These could cut bases off from the civilian grid so they can keep working during long power cuts. The plan also warns that a major war could disrupt global supply chains that provide weapons, equipment and key materials to the military. “The next conflict will likely be fought on multiple fronts. Look at the geopolitics behind any major war.
“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,” he said. Without electricity, you lose communications, water, logistics, assembly lines and just basic military command structures,” Parnell said. “Mission-critical power must be independent, hardened, and redundant,” Parnell said. When that happens, global supply chains will break,” Parnell said.
