The Pentagon has a doomsday plane and
now it's updating its doomsday plan.
>> Today at my direction, we are launching
Fortress America,
a national insurance policy for the
American homeland.
>> Officials said at least 30 municipal
water systems were hit. Utilities
providers across the country are now
scrambling to beef up their security.
>> The Pentagon is preparing major military
bases to operate for at least 90 days
without outside support. Now, when you
hear that, the obvious question is, what
are they preparing for? And how
concerned should we be? There are
credible threats that are worth paying
attention to, but some of the claims
that have been circulating online, they
go well beyond what the evidence tells
us. We're going to work through that
today, and I'm going to show you the
practical steps you can take to prepare
your household. So, let's jump in. If
you're new to this channel, my name is
Chris, and on this channel, we discuss
emergency preparedness, and we discuss
practical ways that you can become more
self-reliant. Now, I've been seeing a
lot of posts about this 90day
requirement, especially within the
preparedness community. Some take it as
a warning that something is about to
happen, and I understand why people have
really begun to get worried about this.
When a story like this starts making the
rounds, I really want to help you
understand what deserves your attention.
We're going to start with what the
Pentagon has actually announced. We're
going to look at the credible threats
behind those concerns, and then I'm
going to explain how I'm personally
assessing it. And after that, I'm going
to run you through six areas of
preparation with videos linked below to
help you get started on your journey of
preparedness or to re-evaluate or
evaluate if you've been preparing for a
while. Also, stick around to the end
because I also have an announcement
about something we're going to be
launching to help you take this further
along with this week's giveaway. So,
let's jump in. Fortress America.
Okay, so let's start with what everyone
has been discussing. The program is
called Fortress America, which in
suitably official government language
stands for federal operations for
resilience, troop resources, energy,
supply, and survivability.
That's a mouthful. Its objective is
simpler. Just reduce the military's
dependence on civilian systems and
vulnerable supply chains. It was
announced on September the 30th. The
program calls for major installations to
generate power, expand stockpiles,
protect supply chains, defense against
cyber attacks, and sabotage, and secure
military communications. Now, on October
the 25th, Fox News reported a more
specific objective from planning
documents. Major installations in the
continental United States should sustain
essential operations independently for
at least 90 days, including electricity,
water, fuel, and communications. That
means operating for 90 days during a
disruption. not expecting one within 90
days. Let me repeat that again. They're
just telling the bases to be able to
operate for 90 days during a disruption.
And again, they're not expecting one
within 90 days. I think that point's
very important. Now, it also does not
mean that every base already meets the
standard. Defense officials are
assessing roughly 500 installation. Cost
remains uncertain and full
implementation, it's going to take
years. Real threats.
So, what does this mean to us? Before
applying the 90-day requirement at home,
we really need to know whether credible
threats support it or whether the
headline outruns the evidence. Some in
the preparedness community conclude that
officials must know a major disruption
is coming. And look, I understand that
concern. Governments, they don't just
launch programs like this in a vacuum
and the military is not hardening bases
against just imaginary problems. There
are credible threats. The Associated
Press reported this week that American
officials had warned several Middle
Eastern countries and regional allies to
prepare for possible renewed strikes on
Iran after the November 3rd elections.
And the warning also includes possible
Iranian retaliation against energy
facilities and other critical
infrastructure. Now, the report was
based on two diplomats that were briefed
on those warnings, and both stressed
that the president had not made a final
decision, and that's a real warning, but
it concerns [clears throat]
regional allies. It does not establish
that Iran is preparing to take down the
American power grid, and it doesn't
prove that Iran is a reason for the
fortress American directive that was
created. And we also have documented
threats closer to home. In July, the
Cyber Security and Infrastructure
Security Agency, which helps protect
critical infrastructure updated an April
warning about Iranian affiliated hackers
targeting equipment in American water,
energy, and government systems. And the
advisory mentions programmable logic
controllers, small industrial computers
that operate pumps, valves, and
treatment systems. And the agency said
malicious activity had disrupted
operations and caused financial losses.
And this was not a new October alert,
nor does it mean that a nationwide
attack is underway. It just shows us
that the threat, it's real. Civilian
systems, they can fail. And military
bases, they depend on many of those
things. However, there's no single
threat or combination of threats that
likely explain fortress America by
itself. So to determine how to gauge
whether serious threats justify my
intention, what I do is I use a simple
framework. So, let's take what we're
observing right now with this situation
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Simple as truth.
What is the framework that I mentioned a
moment ago that I use? It's called AAMS
Razer. And AAM's razor keeps us from
jumping to the most dramatic possibility
before the facts take us there. Now, you
may have seen those more dramatic
theories and attention-grabbing
headlines, but they often rely on
assumptions that we can't verify. The
most direct explanation is that the
military sees a long-standing
vulnerability that's made more urgent by
what's happened at the American bases in
the Middle East. Iranian attacks have
damaged or destroyed hundreds of
structures, forced evacuations,
disrupted logistics, and exposed how
vulnerable bases can become when they
depend on surrounding infrastructure and
long supply lines. And that does not
prove the conflict caused fortress. But
it is reasonable to see those lessons as
one factor that may have accelerated a
resilience effort already in
development. And that's a more grounded
explanation than treating this directive
as proof that officials know a
catastrophe is already on the way. Now,
that interpretation does not require us
to assume officials know the date of a
hidden event. It also does not require
us to pretend the threats are harmless
either. It fits both the public
announcement and the broader evidence.
And there's a takeaway for us in all of
this. Households don't need to copy a
military base or reach a perfect 90-day
standard tomorrow. I mean, come on. Most
families are not going to be able to dig
a well or install a portable nuclear
reactor in the backyard. Although the
Pentagon is considering portable
reactors for military bases, and 3
months remains a useful long-term goal
because it really creates breathing room
during an extended disruption. So build
toward it, but do not treat it as the
price of a mission. The immediate lesson
is that a preparation can look complete
until it supporting systems fails.
Stored food may require water and a way
to cook. tank water may need movement or
treatment. Solar panels, they need the
right equipment and storage to power a
home during an outage. And while a well
needs electricity for its pump, access
to a resource means very little unless
every link from its source to the house
actually works. And that gives us a
simple test for the rest of this video.
What do you have? What does it depend
on? And how long will the alternative
keep working? Britain's new be ready
campaign offers a useful comparison and
you may have heard it mentioned recently
in the news. Britain, they're not alone
in this. In recent years, several
governments have encouraged citizens to
prepare for emergencies that could
interrupt normal services. The be ready
campaign launched on October the 22nd.
It asked British households to prepare
for at least 3 days without things they
normally take for granted, including
electricity, running water, phone
service, or internet access. And the
government also made clear that much of
this advice builds on guidance already
in place and that is household
preparedness. It's not evidence of a
coordinated international countdown.
It's governments that are just surveying
the threat landscape or recognizing
serious gaps in their ability to
maintain essential services and then
asking citizens to be ready. Does that
mean an attack is imminent? No. But when
governments openly acknowledge those
limitations and they begin to encourage
households to prepare, I think we should
take the signal seriously. Now,
different governments and institutions
may use different time frames, but they
are all asking the same practical
question. What keeps working when normal
services don't? I think that's really a
useful question for us to ask about each
of our main categories of preparedness.
Practical steps to take.
Okay, so we've covered a lot in this
video. Now, I want to bring it down to
things that you can do to actually
prepare. And to keep this simple, I
would identify six core pillars of
preparedness that I think will address a
lot of what's been discussed. And those
are food, water, power, cooking,
communication, and medical. Now, if
you're new to preparedness, these can
really give you a place to begin. And if
you've been doing this for a while, I
would encourage you to use them to check
your own preparations. Now, I've covered
these subjects in other videos, and as
we go, you're going to see the matching
video with a number beside it. and that
number matches its link in the
description below. Okay, so let's start
with food. I'd start by building up two
to three weeks of shelf stable meals
your family actually eats. And you can
do that with a little time during your
normal grocery trips with things like
canned meat, beans, rice, pasta, and
some ready to eat options. A manual can
opener belongs with that canned food,
and using and replacing what you store
keeps that in rotation. Now, video
number one walks through a three-w
weekek emergency food supply, but you
can use those same ideas to get your
first two weeks covered as well. The
second thing is water. And for that,
bottled water or clean food grade
containers are a simple place to begin.
So, you want to plan on at least one
gallon per person per day with more for
hot weather or particular household
needs. And you can build that supply
gradually and spread manageable
containers among a few cool, dark places
around your home, away from household
chemicals. Video number two shows how to
do this in an apartment, but the same
ideas work in other homes. I'll also
link to our water storage playlist if
you want to explore more options. All
right, let's talk about power, which is
our third point. Now, I'd first decide
what I really need to keep running. And
that might be something like a
refrigerator, some lights, and phone
charging with medical equipment taking
priority if someone depends on it. But
before you buy anything, you need to
know how much power those devices use
and how long you would want to run them.
In video number three, I walk you
through those basics and I show you how
a small plug-in meter can help you
measure actual use so that you can
choose a setup that fits your need. All
right, the fourth thing is cooking. For
this, you just need to have some mills
that need no heating, which gives you an
easy starting point. And from there,
being able to boil water opens up more
options without keeping a burner running
for an entire mill. And we recently
covered this in a video number four,
including battery power cooking, outdoor
propane, and ways to stretch your fuel,
power, and water. Now, outdoor stoves
and grills, they have to stay outdoors,
obviously, and be used according to the
manufacturer's instructions. So, you
want to try your chosen method before an
allergy so you know that you can
actually make a meal with it. All right,
our fifth point is communication. And
for this, I would encourage you to start
by agreeing with your family on how
you'll check in and where you'll meet if
you can't reach each other. Having
important numbers written down,
including an out of area contact who can
relay messages if you can't contact
other people in your area. It gives
everyone something to work from. If
calls don't go through, a text may still
get through and a charged power bank can
keep your phone useful longer. Video
number five walks you through building
backup options from the phone you
already own to radios and satellite
tools. All right, our sixth point is
medical. Now, for this, I'd start with a
basic first a kit and learn how to use
it. And I would recommend just starting
with a, like I said, basic first a kit
you can pick up on Amazon or pretty much
anywhere. And then you can work up
eventually over time to something like a
trauma kit. This is from Refuge Medical.
They uh have some really good kits that
I recommend. Now, a book if you need and
I would recommend getting a book and
this one is one that I always recommend
people start off with is the survival
medicine handbook by Dr. Joe Alton and
nurse Amy known as Dr. Bones and nurse
Amy. We've brought him on this channel.
We've done interviews with them in the
past and this is a useful reference for
you to have on hand. Now, for
lifethreatening bleeding from an arm or
a leg or any kind of major major
laceration, I recommend a genuine CAT
tourniquet from North American Rescue
along with hands-on bleeding control
training if you have the time to do
that. And if your household depends on
prescriptions or medical information,
work out a backup plan with your
provider. Giveaway. This week's
subscriber giveaway prize is emergency
backup lighting. To enter, just comment
on the video, give it a thumbs up, and
complete the giveaway form linked in the
comments and description section below.
Completing the form is required so we
can randomly select a winner and contact
you. Only our team here at City Prepping
uses that information to administer the
giveaway. So, congrats to Rosemary
Augustine who won the thousand lumen
rechargeable flashlight from last week's
giveaway. We're going to reach out to
you shortly to arrange that delivery.
What I'm watching, my assessment of
Fortress America is to keep a close
watch on what's happening. We'll keep an
eye on it and we'll see how it develops,
but I don't think it's a confirmed
warning of a looming disaster. Now, it
is a serious resilience program
responding to serious vulnerabilities,
but the evidence available today does
not establish a hidden 90-day countdown
or an imminent nationwide disruption.
Now, what could change that assessment
for me is getting more specific
evidence. I'm watching for official
details about the program scope,
funding, and implementation along with
credible warnings or documented
incidents that materially change the
risk to essential services. And if that
evidence changes, we're going to come
back to you and update you. But in the
meantime, this announcement does not
give me a reason to make an emergency
purchase. It just gives us all a useful
reason to inspect systems that we should
be improving anyway. a storm, a cyber
attack, equipment failure, or a local
outage, they can expose the same
household dependency without a national
crisis ever occurring. If you want to
clear course to help you get prepared,
on November the 23rd during Thanksgiving
week, we're going to be releasing an
updated version to our most popular
course. We're updating the course with
what we've learned over the last four
and a half years, including lessons from
you in this community. And you can
subscribe to the city prepping brief for
launch updates and a special
subscriberonly offer. Signing up for the
brief, it doesn't enroll you in the
course. It just simply keeps you
informed when it becomes available with
a discounted price. You're going to find
that sign up link along with resources
for strengthening each of the six areas
we covered in this video in the
description below. I'd also like to know
what this exercise revealed about your
own preparedness. Which area is
currently your weakest and what is one
improvement that you can make this week?
Leave your answer in the comments. If
you're still deciding where to begin,
the video on the side of the screen
shows how I would prioritize the first
30 and 90 days of getting prepared. It's
going to help you to choose a manageable
place to start while you work on the
weak area that you identify today. As
always, stay safe out