Pentagon says it has stopped using Anthropic's Claude months after labelling it a supply-chain risk
Pentagon told the BBC it has ceased using Anthropic's products, months after Pete Hegseth gave the department six months to drop them. For federal AI buyers, it shows a vendor designation being carried out even when the tool sits deep inside daily intelligence work.
The Product Desk
What happened
- Hegseth's designation came after Anthropic refused to strip Claude's safety guardrails over mass-surveillance and autonomous-weapons concerns, under a law usually aimed at firms from hostile countries.
- People familiar with the matter told the BBC that Claude was still in use as recently as last week for research, analysis, intelligence gathering and operations against Iran.
- Claude ran inside the Maven Smart System, the Palantir-operated platform the Pentagon uses as its main tool for organising intelligence and other data.
- The Pentagon has meanwhile signed contracts with Google, xAI and OpenAI.
Why it matters
- What it sets up precedent A US AI vendor has now been designated and dropped over a dispute about what its model may be used for. Any supplier whose usage limits clash with a defence customer's demands carries the same risk.
- What it limits constraint Anthropic's lawsuit calling the designation "unprecedented and unlawful" has not kept Claude in Pentagon use. Vendors cannot treat a pending court case as protection while a phase-out runs.
- What doesn't add up contradiction The cutoff is attested only by a department statement, with Anthropic declining to comment, so buyers should treat Claude's removal as the Pentagon's claim until an outside source confirms it.
Next story · Build · Oct 5
Pentagon's removal of Claude ran past Hegseth's six-month deadlineConfirmed2 publishers
Inside the Maven Smart System, analysts pull up satellite imagery and drone footage. Claude and other large language models then work through that material, with uses that include picking out possible military targets, according to people familiar with how the platform is used [17]. One of them told the BBC that Pentagon employees kept using Claude, including its Mythos models, "throughout the whole period of the controversy" [6].
Hegseth set the phase-out deadline on 27 February, one day before the US and Israel attacked Iran [16]. Six months from that date is about 27 August [19]. For the Pentagon staff using it, Claude was a critical tool for sorting through vast quantities of information [3]. When the phase-out was first ordered, "there was concern with moving beyond Anthropic to OpenAI" and other tools, a former senior US defence official told the BBC [15].
Users keep working in the platform they open every morning, with whatever model is wired into it, until someone takes it out. Claude had been in government use since 2024, and Anthropic was the first advanced AI company to have its tools deployed in agencies doing classified work [7]. Two people familiar with AI use in the department said OpenAI tools have been more widely adopted in some military departments in recent months [10].
Lauren Kahn, a senior research analyst at Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology and a former US defence official, said Claude's deep integration into Maven would have made it difficult to remove quickly [12]. "The fact that it took the Pentagon until now to remove all use of Claude from across the system is indicative that these things are not just plug and play," she said [13]. "Once they become integrated it can be painful to remove them," Kahn said [14].
A buyer working under federal rules can sort each AI tool on two lines. One is whether staff call the model directly or reach it inside a platform a contractor runs. The other is whether a second model is already wired into the same workflow. A direct tool with a fallback in place is the cheapest to unwind if its vendor is barred. An embedded tool with no fallback is the most expensive, because the removal waits on another company's engineering work. Maven sat between the two. Palantir runs it [11], and it already fed data to other large language models [17]. The department still needed months after the designation before an official said Claude was gone [1].
What to watch
- A court ruling in Anthropic's suit to overturn the supply-chain-risk designation.
- Confirmation from Palantir or people inside the department that Claude is out of Maven, or fresh reports that analysts are still using it.
- Which model replaces Claude inside Maven for intelligence and targeting work.
Clarity's read
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- Evidence60
- Adoption35
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives55
- Confidence62
Perspective Coverage
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Claim ledger
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- [1]
A US Department of Defense official told the BBC in a statement that the Pentagon "has ceased the use of Anthropic products", months after it designated the company a supply chain risk on national security grounds.
- [2]
Multiple people familiar with the matter told the BBC that as recently as last week Claude was still used by the department in research, analysis and intelligence gathering as well as in military operations against Iran.
- [3]
Claude was viewed as a critical tool for sorting through vast quantities of information, the people said.
- [4]
Anthropic said the designation was "unprecedented and unlawful" and has sued the Trump administration to overturn it.
- [5]
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth labelled Anthropic a supply chain risk in February and announced the Pentagon would stop using it by late August.
- [6]
Pentagon employees continued to use Anthropic's Claude tools, including its Mythos models, "throughout the whole period of the controversy" with the company, one of the people said.
- [7]
Anthropic had been used by the US government and military since 2024 and was the first advanced AI company to have its tools deployed in government agencies doing classified work.
- [8]
The Pentagon pressed Anthropic to remove safety guardrails from Claude and give the military unfettered access; when Anthropic refused, citing concerns about mass surveillance and autonomous weapons, Hegseth designated it a "national security supply-chain risk", a law typically reserved for companies based in countries that pose a threat to the US.
- [9]
As the legal fight has played out, the Pentagon has signed contracts with other major tech companies, including Google, xAI and OpenAI.
- [10]
OpenAI tools have been more widely adopted in recent months in some military departments, according to two people familiar with AI use in the defence department.
- [11]
Claude was embedded in the Maven Smart System, which is operated by Palantir and is the Pentagon's primary platform for organising intelligence and other data.
- [12]
Lauren Kahn, a senior research analyst at Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology, said that because Claude was deeply integrated into Maven it would have been difficult to remove it quickly from the system.
- [13]
"The fact that it took the Pentagon until now to remove all use of Claude from across the system is indicative that these things are not just plug and play,"
- [14]
"Once they become integrated it can be painful to remove them,"
- [15]
When Hegseth initially ordered Anthropic to be phased out of government, "there was concern with moving beyond Anthropic to OpenAI" and other tools, a former senior US defence official said.
- [16]
Hegseth set a six-month deadline to phase out Anthropic on 27 February, one day before the US and Israel attacked Iran.
- [17]
Analysts and other defence officials rely on Maven to access and organise visual data, including satellite imagery and drone footage, which was then fed into Claude and other large language models for tasks such as identifying potential military targets.
- [18]
A spokesman for Anthropic declined to comment when asked about the Pentagon's statement that it had stopped using its products.
- [19]
Six months from the 27 February deadline-setting date is about 27 August, consistent with the late-August stop date Hegseth announced.
Sources
2 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- bbc.co.ukPentagon stops using Anthropic AI tools after blacklisting company, BBC told
3 articles · October 5, 2026
- bbc.comAn official says the DOD has stopped using Anthropic's tools; sources: Claude was in use as recently as last week, including in military operations against Iran
1 article · October 5, 2026
- en.sedaily.comU.S. Defense Department Drops Anthropic Eight Months After Blacklisting
1 article · October 6, 2026
Topics and entities
Topics
Entities
- OpenAI
- Claude
- Palantir
- Claude Mythos
- Maven Smart System
- Pentagon
- Dario Amodei
- Pete Hegseth
- Center for Security and Emerging Technology
- Anthropic
- xAI