The Pentagon wants all major U.S. military bases to operate for 90 days without outside help if a war cuts power and supply chains. Across the Atlantic, Britain is asking families to keep canned food, bottled water and cash on hand to get through three days of disruption.
It is unclear whether the two efforts are coordinated, and neither government has declared that a new war is imminent. But both predict disruptions that could deprive homes and military installations of the services they depend on.
As part of the Pentagon’s 90-day plan
The Pentagon is developing a requirement that every major military installation in the continental United States be capable of supporting essential operations on its own for at least 90 days, Fox News Digital reported Oct. 25, citing internal planning documents. This requirement is part of an initiative called FORTRESS, short for Federal Operations for Resilience, Troop Resources, Energy, Supply, and Survivability.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth unveiled FORTRESS in his Sept. 30 “State of the Force” address. He promised that each major installation would produce its own electricity, independent of the civilian grid. A follow-up memo outlined plans for a dedicated program office. The 90-day standard goes further than this initial goal, extending self-sufficiency beyond electricity to water, fuel and communications.
The plan envisions portable nuclear reactors, large-scale battery storage and microgrids capable of disconnecting bases from civilian power grids. The Army has already moved in this direction: In August, it announced grants of up to $2.2 billion to build micronuclear reactors at five bases, including Fort Bragg and Fort Hood.
“Power is fighting now,” Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell, who Fox said was leading the FORTRESS initiative, told the outlet. “Without power, you lose communications, water, logistics, assembly lines and just basic military command structures. »
FORTRESS also requires strategic reserves of ammunition, fuel, critical minerals, electronics, spare parts and medical supplies. For the military’s most critical dependencies, this would require at least two qualified supply or production routes, so that the loss of a single factory or supplier would not interrupt operations.
Through the Civil Reserve Manufacturing Network, an existing program integrated with FORTRESS, the Pentagon plans to identify commercial factories that could shift to defense production in a crisis. Technical specifications, cybersecurity protections, contractual terms and conversion procedures would be developed in advance.
The threat that no one names out loud
The Pentagon has not publicly identified a specific country as a FORTRESS target. But in a February 2024 joint advisory, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, NSA and FBI warned that Chinese state-sponsored hackers, known as Volt Typhoon, had compromised the computer networks of U.S. organizations in the communications, energy, transportation and water sectors. The agencies said the hackers were potentially positioning themselves to disrupt essential services in a future conflict. Microsoft first reported the group’s activity in 2023.
The Pentagon has not released cost estimates or a timeline. A senior defense official told reporters Oct. 20 that officials were still assessing the needs of about 500 bases in the continental United States and that fully achieving the goal could take decades, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine. The magazine estimates that the cost could reach tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars.
Britain tells families to prepare for 3 days without essential services
Details of the Pentagon’s plan were revealed days after the British government launched its Be Ready campaign on October 22.
The government checklist recommends three liters of drinking water per person per day. It also lists nonperishable foods that don’t require cooking or refrigeration, flashlights, power banks, first aid supplies, a battery-powered or hand-crank radio, and food and water for pets. Households are also encouraged to hold cash in case card and ATM payments fail.
The government describes Be Ready as the first step in a three-year campaign covering severe weather and other emergencies. Britain has been publishing advice on household preparedness since May 2024, so this campaign is not a sudden signal that war is near.
British defense leadership has been far more brutal. In an article published this weekend in the Telegraph, Defense Secretary Wes Streeting warned that adversaries could have the strength and war economy to attack by 2030. That leaves Britain and its NATO allies just over 1,000 days to prepare, he wrote.
“To avoid the worst, we must prepare for it,” Streeting wrote. He highlighted threats from hostile states, cyberattacks, organized crime and climate change, and argued that terms like “hybrid warfare” underestimate the danger.
Russia, China and Iran are already investigating UK systems
The concerns are not new. Britain’s National Security Strategy for 2025 has named Russia as the most serious threat to the country and flagged hostile activity by Iran. It also presents China as a sophisticated and persistent challenge and highlights undersea cables, energy pipelines and transportation networks as infrastructure to be protected.
A government resilience report released in July highlighted a new conflict in the Middle East, a growing number of minor attacks from Russia and several major cyberattacks.
Britain’s National Cyber Security Center dealt with more than 200 cyber incidents affecting critical infrastructure and the ecosystem that supports it between June 2025 and May 2026. NCSC director general Richard Horne said in June that around 75% of these incidents were believed to be linked to state actors, citing Russia, China and Iran.
Britain is not alone
In March 2025, the European Commission unveiled a preparedness strategy calling for guidelines to help EU residents maintain at least 72 hours of emergency supplies.
In the United States, President Trump marked FEMA National Preparedness Month, an annual campaign dating back to 2004, in September with a presidential message. He urged Americans to keep emergency kits, know their evacuation routes and prepare for “natural and man-made threats.”
Emergency preparedness is nothing new. But this latest advance comes as Western governments grow increasingly concerned about cyberattacks, sabotage and other forms of hybrid warfare linked to Russia, China and Iran. The next conflict may not begin on a battlefield. It could start with a power outage.
Gn usa
