The Pentagon’s FORTRESS America stockpiling programme is intended to keep US forces supplied through a major war, even if cyber attacks or sabotage disable factories, power grids and domestic supply chains.
The initiative aims to build reserves of critical minerals, fuel and munitions on American soil. Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, said the planned effort was “on par with what the DoD pursued during the Cold War”.
Formally established on 30 September, FORTRESS stands for Federal Operations for Resilience, Troop Resources, Energy, Supply, and Survivability. It is also behind plans for major military bases to prepare to operate for 90 days without the electricity grid.
Unlike much of the Pentagon’s Cold War planning, which placed large quantities of matériel near potential battlefields in eastern Europe and north-east Asia, the new programme is focused on protecting supplies within the United States.
That reflects growing concern that American industrial facilities could themselves become targets. Mr Clark warned that China could disrupt production through cyber operations, drones, electromagnetic warfare or attacks carried out by people inside the US.
US agencies have previously warned that Chinese state-sponsored hackers had positioned themselves inside American critical infrastructure. A series of attacks in Poland on 29 December 2025, targeting renewable energy sites, a manufacturing company and a heat and power plant serving almost 500,000 customers, has also highlighted the vulnerability of industrial systems.
Rare-earth shortages expose US supply-chain weakness
The Pentagon’s plans face a major obstacle: the US remains heavily dependent on foreign supplies of the raw materials needed for defence production.
America imported about $60 billion worth of critical minerals other than rare earths in 2025, including nickel, lithium, cobalt, graphite and tungsten, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
The most severe shortfall is in rare-earth magnets. US demand for the most common type reached about 48,000 metric tons last year, while domestic sources supplied only 300 metric tons, according to data from Arthur D. Little reported by Reuters.
Domestic companies are expected to have capacity for about 5,000 metric tons by the end of this year – roughly a tenth of 2025 demand. The shortage has already affected manufacturing, with Ford’s Chicago Explorer plant idling for a week in May 2025 after rare-earth supplies ran short.
China has repeatedly tightened controls on rare-earth exports, and American businesses continue to struggle to secure sufficient supplies. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer pressed Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on 6 November to implement Beijing’s commitments on rare earths and other critical minerals.
Mr Clark said the Pentagon was pursuing two approaches: creating reserves of raw materials while supporting new mining and processing capacity in the US.
Tungsten deal shows how slowly reserves can be built
Tungsten illustrates the difficulty of turning government funding into immediate stockpiles. The US has not commercially mined the metal since 2015, when cheaper imports undercut domestic production, and its net import reliance exceeded 50 per cent in 2025.
In September, tungsten producer The Elmet Group secured a Defence Logistics Agency contract worth up to $2 billion to supply tungsten ores, concentrates and sodium tungstate to the National Defence Stockpile. Only $150 million of the agreement is guaranteed.
The Pentagon has also committed $450 million to Elmet, including about $150 million to help restart the Springer tungsten complex in Nevada.
However, the company does not expect to begin deliveries to the stockpile until additional supplies become available. It plans to wait for new production from investments in Nevada, Australia and Spain rather than divert tungsten already being used by American manufacturers.
The arrangement underlines the challenge facing FORTRESS America: signing contracts does not immediately place minerals in government reserves.
FORTRESS America costs could reach hundreds of billions
The eventual cost of the programme remains unclear. A senior defence official said on 20 October that officials were still assessing the bill, while Air & Space Forces Magazine estimated that the broader initiative could cost “scores of billions of dollars, if not hundreds of billions.”
The Pentagon is examining public-private partnerships to help finance the effort, according to Dale Marks, assistant secretary of defence for energy, installations and environment.
Even with investment, analysts say the US cannot quickly replicate China’s established supply chain. Mr Clark said the Pentagon was unlikely to meet its targets in the near term because of the difficulty of stockpiling both finished weapons and raw minerals.
Chris Berry, a minerals industry analyst, said it would “take many more years” to build the infrastructure required to compete with China’s dominant supply chain.
The programme faces an early test on 1 January 2027, when federal rules are due to prohibit defence contractors from buying rare earths, magnets and tungsten from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
Washington has repeatedly granted waivers because domestic supplies remain insufficient. For the Pentagon, building physical reserves is likely to prove considerably slower than announcing them.
