The US military is making preparations to ensure that it can continue to function in the case that a large war breaks out that threatens US soil.
Work at the Pentagon is reportedly underway to help US military bases to function for up to 90 days at a time without needing any external support.
The initiative is one aspect of the project FORTRESS, which is intended to increase the ability of the US military to keep operating in spite of disruption to civilian infrastructure, Fox News Digital reports.
A major war could cause severe damage to civilian infrastructure across the US, including both physical and digital systems, as well as supply chains, and the reliance on civilian infrastructure has been called an ‘intolerable risk’ by Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell.
“We don’t want to rely on standard civilian municipal infrastructure to run our national defence. We just simply can’t. It’s an intolerable risk,” Parnell said.
Part of the initiative also includes looking at alternative sources of things like power and fuel.
“Power is combat now,” said Parnell. “Without electricity, you lose communications, water, logistics, assembly lines and just basic military command structures.”
The project is intended to increase the independence of US military bases (Leonhard Simon/Getty Images)
Those 90 days of independent operation include being able to keep up access to fuel, ammunition, as well as power, communications, and water for that 90 day period.
Parnell spoke about how the defence of the US from external threats had previously been contingent on it being bordered by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, but says that in the modern world this is not the case.
“I realised that a lot of the way we think about homeland defence was built around the antiquated assumption that two oceans would protect us,” said Parnell.
“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 one of the biggest factors in keeping the bases operational, as relying on civilian power grids keeps a lot of military hardware running, and as a result the project is exploring options such as large battery storage, building ‘microgrids’ to specifically supply the military, and even portable nuclear reactors.
“Mission-critical power must be independent, hardened, and redundant,” said Parnell.
The US Department of War, formerly Defence, is headed up by Pete Hegseth (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
It’s also looking at reducing dependency on the supply chains for the military, which can extend around the world.
“The next conflict will likely be fought on multiple fronts,” said Parnell. “Look at the geopolitics behind any major war. When that happens, global supply chains will break.”
Getting around this means stockpiling things like spare parts, medical supplies, as well as fuel, munitions, and certain minerals which are used in digital infrastructure and weaponry.
It comes as global tensions continue to mount, with Trump pursuing war in Iran, as well as staging a days-long war against Venezuela in which US forces detained Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.
Donald Trump has also made repeated threats towards the US’ southern neighbour Cuba, which has been badly hit by US blockades on Venezuelan oil.
Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine continues to drag on, and China has also expressed an intent to invade the island of Taiwan.
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