Pentagon tells BBC it has stopped using Anthropic's Claude; sources say Claude was used in Iran operations until last week
On Oct 5, 2026 a US Department of Defense official told the BBC that the Pentagon "has ceased the use of Anthropic products", more than a month after the late-August deadline Pete Hegseth set when he designated Anthropic a supply chain risk in February. Former defence officials and contractors told the BBC that Claude, embedded in Palantir's Maven Smart System, was still in use as recently as the previous week, for intelligence analysis and in military operations against Iran, including through Mythos-class models.
Key facts
- Statement (Mon Oct 5, 2026, given in response to a BBC question): the Pentagon 'has ceased the use of Anthropic products'. Anthropic declined to comment
- Hegseth set a six-month phase-out on Feb 27, 2026 (deadline late August); the BBC says it is unclear why removal took longer
- Sources (former US defence officials, AI contractors): Claude was used 'as recently as last week' for research, analysis and intelligence gathering and in military operations against Iran; Pentagon staff used Claude, 'including its powerful Mythos models', 'throughout the whole period of the controversy'
- Claude was embedded in Palantir's Maven Smart System. Analysts fed satellite imagery and drone footage organised in Maven into Claude and other LLMs for tasks 'such as identifying potential military targets', and to compile one-page briefs passed up the chain of command
- Lauren Kahn (Georgetown CSET, former US defence official): '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'
- Two people told the BBC that OpenAI tools have been adopted more widely in some military departments in recent months; the Pentagon has signed contracts with Google, xAI and OpenAI during the legal fight
- Context: Trump met Amodei twice at the White House the previous week; Amodei: 'if we work with the president, we can win safely'
What happened
The BBC asked the Defense Department about its use of Anthropic after several people said Claude was still widely used. The department replied on Monday, Oct 5, that it "has ceased the use of Anthropic products". The BBC's sources said Claude had been deeply integrated in Maven, Palantir's main intelligence and data platform for the Pentagon (also used by some US allies), and was valued for sorting large volumes of information. That made it hard to remove. The statement does not give a date on which use stopped. The account of Claude's use in operations against Iran comes from anonymous sources, not from the Pentagon.
Why it matters
It is the first confirmation that the Pentagon has actually completed the phase-out ordered in February. It also suggests the most capable Claude models stayed in military intelligence workflows, including target identification during the Iran war, for months after Anthropic was blacklisted for refusing to drop its limits on mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. This came while the White House's relations with Amodei were warming.
Changelog
- 2026-10-05: created (sweep 2026-10-05; BBC article read directly)
People
Related events
- Pentagon designates Anthropic a "supply chain risk" after it refuses surveillance and autonomous-weapons uses ★★★★
- Judge rules Pentagon "supply chain risk" label on Anthropic unlawful retaliation ★★★
- D.C. Circuit upholds Pentagon designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk (2–1) ★★★
- Pentagon review: overreliance on Palantir's Maven AI contributed to the US strike on a school in Minab, Iran ★★★★
- Trump TIME interview: Amodei 'different than I thought', AI renamed 'SI', open to US stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic ★★★
Sources (3)
- pressBBC: Pentagon stops using Anthropic AI tools after blacklisting company, BBC told (Kali Hays, Daniel Bush)
- discussionTechmeme: DOD has stopped using Anthropic's tools (BBC)
- pressAndroid Headlines: Pentagon officially removes Anthropic's Claude from military systems
id: 2026-10-05-pentagon-ceases-anthropic-use-bbc · updated 2026-10-05 · open in the interactive timeline