Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon wants US bases able to run 90 days alone if war wipes out the civilian grid, and portable nuclear reactors are on the table

The Pentagon is reportedly making plans to ensure US military bases can operate on their own for up to 90 days if a major war ever threatens American soil. The goal is for bases to keep functioning without any external support during that period.

The plans were first detailed by Fox News Digital and later picked up by LADbible. The initiative is part of Project FORTRESS, which aims to strengthen the US military’s ability to keep operating even if civilian infrastructure, including physical and digital systems and supply chains, is severely disrupted.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the military cannot keep depending on civilian systems. “We don’t want to rely on standard civilian municipal infrastructure to run our national defense. We just simply can’t. It’s an intolerable risk,” he said.

Power is clearly at the center of the Pentagon’s plans

Parnell stressed how crucial electricity is to military operations. “Power is combat now,” he said, adding that without electricity, the military loses communications, water, logistics, assembly lines, and basic command structures.

The 90 days of independent operation would include steady access to fuel, ammunition, power, communications, and water. To achieve power independence, Project FORTRESS is exploring large battery storage, microgrids built specifically for the military, and even portable nuclear reactors.

“Mission-critical power must be independent, hardened, and redundant,” Parnell said. The project also aims to reduce the military’s dependence on global supply chains, which can stretch around the world.

“The next conflict will likely be fought on multiple fronts,” Parnell explained, adding that global supply chains will break when a major war happens. To prepare, the Pentagon plans to stockpile spare parts, medical supplies, fuel, munitions, and certain minerals used in digital infrastructure and weaponry.

Parnell also said US defense once relied on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans for protection, which he believes is no longer the case. “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. He added that 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.”

The initiative comes amid rising global tensions. President Trump is pursuing war in Iran and staged a days-long war against Venezuela, in which US forces detained Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. He has also made repeated threats toward Cuba, which has been badly hit by US blockades on Venezuelan oil.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine continues, and China has expressed an intent to invade Taiwan. The US Department of War, previously known as the Department of Defense, is led by Pete Hegseth.