Pentagon stops using Anthropic products after security blacklist
The move ends Claude’s use inside a Pentagon system for intelligence and decision support, after weeks of overlap with the phaseout plan.
The Pentagon says it has now stopped using Anthropic’s AI products, ending a relationship that had continued even after the company was blacklisted over national security concerns. The shift matters because Claude had been embedded in the Pentagon’s Maven Smart System, where it was used for intelligence work, analysis and military decision-making support. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth put Anthropic on a supply-chain-risk list in February and said the department would phase it out by late August, but people familiar with the system said Claude was still in use as recently as last week. Anthropic has challenged the designation in court, while the Pentagon has been signing more AI contracts with Google, xAI and OpenAI.
Why it matters
For the Pentagon, the stop closes a period in which a blacklisted supplier was still inside a core military workflow. For Anthropic, it removes access to a sensitive government customer while its legal challenge continues. The wider signal is that the department is shifting its AI spending toward other vendors it has already contracted with.
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Sources
- BBC Technology