The Pentagon’s FORTRESS America program is meant to keep U.S. military installations running if the outside services they use fail. A claim circulating online says the Pentagon warned Americans to expect a 90-day blackout. The Army’s account of the announcement and the memo establishing the program contain no such warning. The 90-day figure comes from subsequent reporting on military planning.
What the Pentagon announced in September
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth introduced FORTRESS America in a Sept. 30 speech to military personnel in Quantico, Virginia. The Army’s account, published Oct. 2, says he described an eventual goal of having U.S. military installations run on their own power. The one-page directive is also dated Sept. 30. It assigns responsibility for the program inside the Pentagon and covers energy, the defense supply chain, reserves, installation security and communications.
The memo does give a time limit: 30 days to stand up a program office. That deadline is for the officials organizing the work. It says nothing about how long a power outage will last or when a military installation will be able to operate independently.
The Army had already begun putting some bases on a more independent footing. In September 2024, it commissioned a microgrid at Fort Hunter Liggett in California. A microgrid can provide power to a defined site. The older project shows what adding on-site power at one installation looks like. It predates FORTRESS America by two years.
Where the 90-day figure came from
On Oct. 25, Fox News reported that Pentagon planning would have major installations in the continental United States sustain essential operations for at least 90 days without outside support. Fox attributed that detail to documents it reviewed and interviewed Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell. The 90 days described a period the bases would be expected to cover, including services such as water and communications. The public Sept. 30 memo does not include that figure, and the report does not establish that bases already meet the standard.
In an Oct. 30 interview with Breaking Defense, senior Pentagon adviser Michael Marks described work on setting priorities and lowering costs. He said the work was focused on those decisions and did not give a date for every existing installation to meet the program’s goals.
The civilian blackout claim had surfaced by Nov. 5, when Atlanta News First reported on it. A planning period tells military staff how long they should be able to operate under a stated condition. A forecast would require evidence about where and when that condition is expected to occur. The documents and reporting on FORTRESS America describe the first of those.
Where to check for actual grid alerts
For winter risk, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s seasonal assessment examines whether regional generation and transmission can meet projected peak demand from December through February. Its schedule lists a Nov. 18 release and a Nov. 19 public webinar on the findings. The assessment addresses grid conditions across regions. It cannot tell you whether a tree will bring down the line that serves your block.
A separate September review by federal regulators and NERC illustrates that difference. The agencies examined grid operations during the January and February cold spell, including storms Fern and Gianna. Generators went offline at levels comparable to a January 2025 cold outbreak, yet participating electric utilities reported no operator-ordered power cuts during the period. That finding is about how the wider system performed under stress. Local distribution outages can still leave homes without power.
An actual service interruption is a more local question. Regional operators can post grid conditions, as ERCOT does for most of Texas, and your utility can show which addresses have lost power and post restoration estimates. For an outage at your address, use the outage map or reporting number on your electric bill.
