Pentagon staffers, former officials, and IT contractors are resisting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's order to remove Anthropic’s AI tools from military operations. The resistance follows a dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon over guardrails for how the military could use its artificial intelligence tools. On March 3, Hegseth designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk, barring its use by the Pentagon and its contractors after a six-month phase-out.
Key Takeaways
Pentagon staffers are resisting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's order to remove Anthropic’s AI tools from military operations due to a dispute over guardrails for their use. Despite the ban, some users continue using Claude, citing its superiority and essential role in tasks like targeting weapons and analyzing intelligence.
The move is facing resistance from some military users who are dragging their feet and others preparing to revert to Anthropic’s platform in anticipation of the dispute being resolved. One IT contractor stated that career IT people at the Department of Defense (DoD) hate this move because they had finally gotten operators comfortable using AI, describing it as stupid.
The contractor noted that Anthropic’s Claude AI model is considered the best, while xAI’s Grok often produced inconsistent answers to the same query. The complaints suggest uprooting Anthropic from the Pentagon's networks will be neither quick nor painless. One contractor said recertifying systems that run on Anthropic’s products for military use could take months.
Anthropic announced a $200 million defense contract in July 2025 and quickly became embedded in the military’s workflow. Claude became the first AI model approved to operate on classified military networks, and officials familiar with its use said adoption was strong. Within the federal government, Anthropic’s models were widely viewed as more capable than rival offerings.
The Pentagon uses AI for tasks ranging from targeting weapons and helping plan operations to handling classified material and analyzing information. According to CBS News, AI programs are likely being deployed as part of the U.S. operation against Iran. The military is processing roughly a thousand potential targets a day and striking the majority of them, with turnaround time for the next strike potentially under four hours.
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