The US military is still using Claude – but security customers are fleeing

Results of The Anthropic Conflict and the Department of Defense has left the company in a difficult position – being both working as part of the ongoing conflict between the US and Iran and eliminating many of its customers in the defense industry.

One of these distractions is the US government’s current and controversial restrictions. President Trump ordered NGOs to act stop using Anthropic productsbut the company was given six months to terminate its operations by the Department of Defense. The next day, the US and Israel launched a surprise attack on Tehran, entering an ongoing standoff before Trump’s executive order was fully implemented.

The result is that, as the US continues its attack on Iran, Anthropic models are being used in many strategic decisions. And although the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth promised to designate the company as an auxiliary threat, nothing has been done to make it possible, so there are no restrictions on the use of the system.

Article in the Washington Post On Wednesday they discovered new information about how Anthropic systems are being used in conjunction with Palantir’s Maven system. As Pentagon officials prepared for the attack, the system “provided hundreds of ideas, provided specific locations, and prioritized those targets based on their importance,” the Post said. This article describes how the system works as “reality targeting and prioritization.”

At the same time, many companies involved in the protection of security have already replaced Anthropic models with competitors. Lockheed Martin and other defense contractors began to switch corporate models this weekaccording to a Reuters report. Most subcontractors are built the same way: Managing partner at J2 Ventures he told CNBC that his 10 companies “have stopped using Claude in defense cases and are working to replace that service with another.”

A big open question is whether Hegseth will make good on the supply chain risk designation, which could lead to a serious lawsuit. But at the moment, one of the leading AI labs is quickly branching out from military technology – as it is used in the war zone.