Pentagon’s FORTRESS stockpile plan confronts a critical minerals gap

By Nathan Brooks

U.S. demand for the most common rare-earth magnet reached roughly 48,000 metric tons in 2025, while domestic sources supplied just 300 metric tons, according to Arthur D. Little data reported by Reuters. The U.S. produces less than 1% of the magnet type it uses, Reuters reported.

The Pentagon established FORTRESS America on Sept. 30, 2026, short for Federal Operations for Resilience, Troop Resources, Energy, Supply, and Survivability. It aims to keep U.S. forces operating during a war if conflict disrupts power grids and manufacturing supply chains. The program seeks stocks of critical minerals, fuel and munitions on U.S. soil to survive cyberattacks or sabotage at home.

Fortune reported that FORTRESS also drives major bases to plan for 90 days without grid access. The program combines physical reserves with base-level resilience.

What does FORTRESS America change for U.S. suppliers?

For U.S. suppliers, FORTRESS turns the Pentagon into a buyer of raw minerals, fuel and munitions. The effect is contract demand, not necessarily immediate deliveries, a risk The Elmet Group’s tungsten award makes clear.

Stockpiling itself is not unusual for the U.S. military, Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told Fortune. FORTRESS differs in planned scale and domestic focus. Clark said the effort is “on par with what the DoD pursued during the Cold War.”

During the Cold War, the Pentagon stored as much or more war matériel overseas, near battlefields in Eastern Europe or Northeast Asia, Clark said. FORTRESS places reserves inside the United States, reflecting concern that American factories could become targets.

China dominates processing of many critical minerals and has kept American companies short even in peacetime, Fortune reported. Clark warned that China could disrupt U.S. production through cyber operations, drones, electromagnetic warfare or attacks by people inside the country.

U.S. agencies have warned that Chinese state-sponsored hackers positioned themselves inside American critical infrastructure. That concern has a European precedent. On Dec. 29, 2025, cyberattacks hit about 30 renewable energy sites, a manufacturing company and a heat and power plant serving nearly 500,000 customers in Poland, according to Polish officials.

Polish officials linked the attacks to Russia’s Federal Security Service and said the attackers tried to destroy industrial systems. The country avoided a major outage.

The mineral gap

The import bill shows the exposure. The U.S. imported about $60 billion of critical minerals other than rare earths in 2025, including nickel, lithium, cobalt, graphite and tungsten, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Fortune described the U.S. defense industry as deeply reliant on foreign raw-material chains.

U.S. companies are on track for about 5,000 metric tons of common rare-earth magnet capacity by the end of 2026, Reuters reported, citing Arthur D. Little data. That is roughly one-tenth of 2025 demand.

The shortage has reached factory floors. In May 2025, Ford, ranked No. 22 on the 2026 Fortune 500, idled its Chicago Explorer plant for a week because rare-earth supplies ran short, Fortune reported.

China has repeatedly tightened rare-earth export controls, and American companies still struggle to secure enough supply, Reuters reported on Nov. 6, citing U.S. officials. That day, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer pressed Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng to fully carry out Beijing’s commitments on rare earths and other critical minerals, according to a USTR readout.

A major war could further disrupt overseas production and shipping routes, making replenishment harder, Fortune reported. Clark said the Pentagon is pursuing two responses: building raw-material reserves and funding domestic mining and processing capacity.

The tungsten bottleneck

Tungsten, a Clark stocking priority, shows why spending cannot produce a quick supply. The U.S. has not commercially mined tungsten since 2015, when cheaper imports undercut domestic production, according to Scientific American. Net import reliance for the metal exceeded 50% in 2025, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

In September, The Elmet Group won a Defense Logistics Agency contract to supply tungsten ores, concentrates and sodium tungstate to the National Defense Stockpile. Its terms:

• Up to $2 billion in contract value.
• $150 million guaranteed under the contract.
• $450 million in separate Pentagon commitments to Elmet, including about $150 million earmarked to restart the Springer tungsten complex in Nevada.

Elmet said deliveries to the stockpile will not start until additional supply becomes available. To avoid diverting tungsten from American manufacturers, it will wait for new production from investments in Nevada, Australia and Spain. The deal creates a future supply channel without filling government vaults now.

Funding the stockpile

The cost remains unsettled. A senior defense official told reporters on Oct. 20 that officials were still assessing costs, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine. The magazine estimated the initiative could cost scores of billions, potentially hundreds of billions.

To help cover the bill, the Pentagon is exploring public-private partnerships, Dale Marks, assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment, told Breaking Defense. Even with capital flowing, analysts warn that supply-chain independence cannot be rushed.

Clark said the Pentagon is unlikely to meet its goals near term, because rapidly stocking finished weapons and raw minerals is structurally difficult. Chris Berry, a minerals industry analyst, told Reuters it will “take many more years” to build infrastructure capable of competing with China’s dominant supply chain.

The Jan. 1, 2027 test

The first test has a date. Starting Jan. 1, 2027, federal rules require defense contractors to stop buying rare earths, magnets and tungsten from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. Washington has repeatedly granted waivers because domestic supply falls short, Reuters reported in July.

For FORTRESS America, the next milestone is physical material entering the stockpile, not another contract announcement. The $2 billion tungsten award and planned 5,000 metric tons of magnet capacity show why: neither guarantees near-term delivery.