The US Department of Defense officially confirmed it stopped using AI tools from Anthropic, ending months of speculation about whether military analysts were still relying on the company’s popular Claude model. The announcement marks the end of a long phase-out period after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated Anthropic a national security supply chain risk earlier this year.
Despite a six-month deadline set back in February, Pentagon staff continued using Claude as recently as last week for intelligence analysis, target identification, and high-level briefing preparation.
Why removing Claude took so long
The delay in cutting ties came down to software mechanics rather than bureaucratic stalling, BBC reports. Defense analysts had deeply embedded Claude into the Maven Smart System, a central intelligence platform operated by Palantir that organizes drone footage and satellite imagery.
Former defense officials and researchers at Georgetown University noted that once an advanced AI model gets woven into a complex data engine like Maven, swapping it out is a difficult, multi-step engineering task. Military personnel regularly used Claude to process massive volumes of visual data and assemble concise one-page operational briefs for senior commanders. This made an instant replacement almost impossible during active intelligence operations.
Guardrail disputes and rival tech contracts
The fallout between the military and the AI ​​startup began when the Pentagon pressed Anthropic to strip away its built-in safety guardrails. Defense officials wanted unrestricted access to the underlying models, but Anthropic refused. The AI lab pointed to firm company policies against mass surveillance and autonomous weaponry. In response, the Department of Defense labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk—a designation usually reserved for foreign adversaries—prompting Anthropic to file a lawsuit against the administration.
With Anthropic officially out, the Pentagon shifted its AI spending toward rival tech firms. Department contracts have increasingly gone to OpenAI, xAI and even Google Gemini. Particularly, OpenAI tools have been seeing widespread adoption across various military branches in recent months.
That said, despite the legal courtroom battle, relations between leadership appear nuanced. President Donald Trump even hosted Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei for discussions at the White House last week.
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