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An Iranian strike in February destroyed an American missile-defense radar worth about $300 million at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. In the war with Iran, the U.S. military has lost at least 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones. And intercepting relatively cheap Iranian drones can require missiles costing millions of dollars.That is the arithmetic Pete Hegseth must confront as he builds FORTRESS America, the Department of War initiative to secure the capabilities and supply chains on which the military depends.FORTRESS America should mean more than stockpiling. It should mean American resilience through American scale.Hegseth is right to pursue resilience. But without a reality check, the initiative risks becoming another bumper sticker in a $1 trillion defense budget.FORTRESS America identifies five pillars: energy independence; supply chain and defense industrial base resilience; a strategic defense reserve; installation hardening and cyber resilience; and resilience in space and spectrum. Each serves a genuine need. But resilience should not mean putting everything in a government silo. The Iran war offers a warning about how easily technological overmatch can become economic mismatch.The Pentagon has long pursued technological overmatch: the most sophisticated aircraft, sensors, missiles, and networks. Yet expensive, highly specialized systems can be difficult to replace, while an adversary can keep sending cheaper weapons into the fight.The losses in Iran do not erase America’s military superiority. They do expose a costly imbalance: A nation can possess superior technology and still face an economic contest in which its enemies impose disproportionate costs.Build for scaleThe same lesson applies to the broader FORTRESS America agenda. An energy strategy cannot depend on a single vulnerable source. Supply chains cannot hinge on components easily disrupted or cut off. Defense systems cannot be so bespoke, expensive, and difficult to manufacture that the United States struggles to produce them at scale.Palmer Luckey’s Anduril offers a useful model. Its Arsenal-1 factory in Ohio is designed to manufacture autonomous military systems in volume for the United States and its allies. Commercial manufacturing methods and components help make that scale possible.Space offers another example. American entrepreneurs have made rockets, satellites, and launches more efficient. The government should create conditions for American companies to compete, invest, and scale — rather than replicate the commercial industrial base inside the Pentagon.RELATED: Can you hear him now? Elon Musk is on the brink of revolutionizing yet another global industry yucelyilmaz/Getty ImagesA spectrum arsenal, not a spectrum hoardThe logic extends to wireless spectrum. Federal agencies retain extensive access to frequencies that commercial providers want for wireless networks. Congress has protected the heavily used 3.1-3.45 GHz band from commercial auction, reflecting the military’s radar and other defense requirements. But treating spectrum chiefly as a resource to hold can also foreclose commercial capacity and innovation.The goal should not be to privilege one particular frequency, but to strike a balance: federal agencies currently control or share access to substantial portions of the most valuable spectrum, much of which could support commercial wireless networks if policy better balanced national security needs with the public benefits of commercial use.The military does not necessarily need to control every frequency; it needs reliable access to the capabilities those frequencies enable. In Ukraine, commercial low-Earth-orbit satellite networks have supported the fight against Russia. Such networks can provide military utility at enormous scale without requiring the Pentagon to build all the underlying infrastructure itself.Even if spectrum were weighted toward commercial use, U.S. law gives the president significant authority over communications in wartime and emergencies. Military-grade satellite services, such as those procured for Ukraine, operate under Pentagon contracts and negotiated terms designed for national security needs. Retail satellite internet, by contrast, operates under commercial licensing and ordinary terms of service.RELATED: Most of the internet is suddenly melting down, and there’s only one fix Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Getty ImagesThe Pentagon already recognizes the value of commercial technology. Its October acquisition guidance makes commercial products and services the default for procurement. Spectrum policy should draw on the same principle: Buy and secure the capability where commercial networks can deliver it.America needs a spectrum arsenal that draws on the strength of its wireless and technology industries: competing network providers, satellite constellations, sensors, communications systems, and infrastructure built with American investment, technology, and workers. The military can buy or reserve capacity, with priority and assured-access arrangements for crises and war.The fortress is the industrial baseThe best fortress is not one in which the government owns everything behind the walls. It is one in which American companies have already built the networks, factories, and technologies Americans use every day — and the military can draw on that industrial strength when the nation needs it.FORTRESS America should mean more than stockpiling. It should mean American resilience through American scale.Iran is giving us the reality check now. We can use it to rethink spectrum policy, defense manufacturing, and military procurement — or discover the same mismatch in the next conflict, when the stakes may be much higher.

A Venezuelan illegal alien was shot and killed as he was firing a gun into a homeless encampment in the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago, according to various law enforcement sources.An off-duty Federal Bureau of Investigation agent happened to see 27-year-old Oscar Isaya-Corrales firing at crowds Monday evening and took him down.He had a slew of previous arrests that included 'domestic violence, criminal damage to property, felony retail theft, driving with an expired license.'The agent was driving home when he saw Isaya-Corrales "discharging a firearm into a group of innocent people" near 18th Street and Union Avenue, according to an FBI statement.Chicago police rushed to the scene to find the 41-year-old agent aiming at the wounded gunman, who had been shot in both legs, his chest, and right flank, according to a police report.Isaya-Corrales died at a hospital about an hour later.The agent was unharmed."The FBI takes all shooting incidents involving our agents or task force members seriously," an FBI statement reads. "In accordance with FBI policy, the shooting incident is under review by the FBI’s Inspection Division."The Department of Homeland Security said that Isaya-Corrales had been caught at the border in 2023 but subsequently released "completely unvetted" by the Biden administration.DHS added that he had a slew of previous arrests that included "domestic violence, criminal damage to property, felony retail theft, driving with an expired license, marijuana possession, and several traffic misdemeanors."Isaya-Corrales got another chance after officials in Blue Island, Illinois, refused to honor a detainer request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Dec. 2025.RELATED: DHS attorney DEMOLISHES '60 Minutes' reporter over 'law-abiding' illegal aliens narrative in full interview Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez issued a statement skeptical of the account from the FBI."What may have happened is, there was a shooting earlier, maybe around the area of the expressway. Someone heard some shots, and then, when neighbors came out, they saw a vehicle that now we know is the FBI agent that came out of the vehicle and shot someone on an e-bike," he said. Isaya-Corrales was homeless himself and had been staying at a shelter. "What prompted the shooting?" Sigcho-Lopez added. "What transpired after the initial gunfire to justify the agent continuing to aim his gun at the victim while he apparently was already shot multiple times and laying on the ground? Was the agent acting alone or part of a taskforce operation? These are questions that only an independent, transparent investigation can answer." DHS was far less skeptical. "God bless this FBI agent for their heroic action," the agency concluded. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Election season has historically brought plenty of campaign ads, but these days it also brings a fresh crop of painful-to-listen-to liberal anthems penned by white women who are suffering from terminal TDS.“I’m sure everyone has heard the old saying that ... there’s only two things in life that are certain: death and taxes. And I agree, those two things are certain. However, I would like to just deposit a third one just into the atmosphere,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says.“Unhinged liberal white women are going to drop a new song to encourage you to vote as we approach an election,” she continues. “It is certain. It happens every time, and it always is terrible. That is always something that you can hang your hat on.”“We won’t, we won’t ever let go of that hard-won freedom, freedom to vote,” the women sing in the now-viral video.“We the people are for the people,” they continue, clapping to the beat.“The charisma of a doorknob is what they have,” Gonzales comments.“I love, also, that the woman was holding a sign that said, ‘Make it too big to rig.’ Like, can you steal elections or not? I have been reliably informed that that’s not a thing,” she continues.“Now, I will just say ... I’m not done, OK? Because there are other libs who heard this song, and they were like, ‘Yes, this is what we’re doing. It’s the only way to convince people to vote, is for us to just stand on a street corner like the goofy motherf**kers that we are,” she adds.Gonzales plays another video of a group of white women performing the same song, but this time it’s on a stage with instruments and a little more upbeat.“They at least have it. It’s faster. They got more energy,” she says, before playing a clip of yet another new liberal anthem.“My persecution is your persecution, and your persecution is my persecution,” a woman sings in the video.“I’ve fallen asleep five times since the clip started,” Gonzales says. “Those people’s votes count just as much as yours does,” she points out.Want more from Sara Gonzales?To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

An estimated $20 million ad campaign from the Trump administration was blocked by a federal judge who sided with the Democratic National Committee.U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan said Wednesday that the administration could not create or air advertisements using taxpayer funds.'Administrations of both parties have used public service announcements to explain policy and make the case for the nation's direction.'The ad campaign is being challenged in court in three separate lawsuits."Here, there is little doubt that Defendants' unlawful use of public funds makes it more difficult for the DNC to achieve its mission of 'electing Democratic candidates in federal, state, and local elections across the Country,'" AliKhan wrote in the ruling.She added that the administration's "use of public dollars to finance the challenged ads imposes competitive harm on the DNC, causing Democratic campaign prospects to suffer."The judge ordered the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Homeland Security to "take all necessary actions to cease distribution of the challenged ads, including through authorized third parties."After facing pressure about the ads, the president said he would fund them himself and with money he raised for super PAC MAGA Inc.But AliKhan noted that the ads kept running with a disclosure that read, "Paid for by the U.S. Government."A White House official said the ruling was "moot" and explained why in a statement to the Washington Sun."The PSAs are being paid for by outside groups," the official said. "Administrations of both parties have used public service announcements to explain policy and make the case for the nation's direction." RELATED: Pollster Frank Luntz CRUSHES Democrats' hopes over favorable polling The Sun report noted that both former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden ran advertisements during their time in office, but those were meant to publicize specific initiatives.AliKhan added in her ruling, "Every public dollar spent on airing the challenged ads allows MAGA Inc. — which has already spent $25,000,000 in the 2025-26 federal election cycle to support Republican candidates and oppose Democratic candidates — to conserve its resources for other political efforts adverse to the DNC."One survey found that a vast majority of Americans, 86%, thought the campaign-style taxpayer-funded ads were inappropriate. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!