The Pentagon plans to use public-private partnerships to help cover the costs of FORTRESS America, a major initiative to strengthen military installations across the United States. The military services are already identifying projects that could benefit from commercial investment and capabilities, a senior Defense Department official said.
“This is where public-private partnerships can really start to pay off,” said Dale Marks, assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment. The goal, he explained, is to move the initiative forward without requiring the Pentagon to repeatedly seek additional funding from Congress.
Private investment to accelerate the effort
According to Marks, each military service is working to set priorities and identify parts of the initiative that could attract commercial investment. Such partnerships could speed up implementation and expand projects without relying entirely on public funding.
Marks did not specify which projects might be included in potential deals, or whether the Pentagon could provide additional large-scale loans to companies in strategic industries.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled FORTRESS as an “insurance policy” for the nation. The initiative is built around five priorities: energy independence for bases, stronger supply chains, better distribution of strategic reserves, hardened military installations and weapons that can continue operating if satellite communications fail.
“Fortress America does not mean retreating behind our borders. It means securing the launching pad,” Marks said. A more resilient domestic infrastructure, he argued, would allow the United States to project power abroad without leaving its home-front bases vulnerable.
Powering bases through prolonged outages
The Pentagon is not requiring every installation to adopt the same model, nor has it set a single deadline for all bases to comply. Its immediate focus is identifying the most important investments and ways to reduce costs.
For energy, the goal is for major military installations to operate without the civilian power grid for 30, 60 or even 90 days. Marks described this capability as “sovereign operational continuity” and said the Pentagon wants to end bases’ dependence on commercial electricity networks.
One foundation for the effort is the Army’s Janus program, which is spending $2.2 billion to develop and test nuclear microreactor prototypes from five companies. However, microreactors are not expected to be deployed at every installation. Depending on the location, the Pentagon may also use other energy sources, including natural gas and geothermal power.
Reducing reliance on foreign supply chains
A second priority is strengthening domestic supply chains. The Pentagon says essential materials and components for military equipment — including rare-earth magnets, titanium, specialized semiconductors and solid rocket propellants — have become dependent on foreign mining, processing and manufacturing.
Efforts to rebuild domestic supply are already underway. Measures cited include a presidential executive order issued in July that gives companies until early 2027 to remove critical materials and minerals from Russia, Iran, North Korea and China from their supply chains. The Pentagon has also provided conditional loans to companies in the rare-earth sector.
Hardened bases and cyber protection
Another pillar focuses on the physical and cyber resilience of military installations. The plan goes beyond surface-level security, calling for high-performance concrete protective structures, underground command centers, layered short-range air defenses, concealed counter-drone systems and operational technology networks isolated from the internet and built around a “zero trust” model.
Marks said his team is working with the official responsible for the missile-defense portfolio to prioritize areas for protection. He did not publicly link this pillar to the Golden Dome homeland-defense plan.
Strategic reserves and on-site production
FORTRESS also aims to increase reserves of ammunition, fuel, propellants and spare parts, while distributing them across more locations in the United States. This area could create opportunities for private-sector partnerships, including in factories and depots.
The Pentagon wants to establish 90-day stocks and deploy digital additive-manufacturing depots. These facilities could produce critical replacement parts inside military installations, including under embargo conditions.
Keeping weapons operational without satellite links
The final pillar is intended to ensure U.S. forces can continue using their weapons systems during jamming, electronic warfare or anti-satellite attacks. Proposed measures include ground-based GPS, subterranean inertial networks and direct optical communications links.
Marks said the objective is to preserve the military’s ability to monitor the battlefield even if commercial communications systems in low Earth orbit were disabled.
