The US military is still using Claude — but defense-tech clients are fleeing

Source: TechCrunch

Image Credits: Atta Kenare/AFP / Getty Images

9:20 AM PST · March 4, 2026

Background

The aftermath of Anthropic’s dispute with the Department of Defense has left the company in an awkward position—still actively used in the ongoing U.S.–Iran conflict while simultaneously decoupling from many defense‑industry clients.

Conflicting U.S. government directives have added to the confusion. President Trump directed civilian agencies to discontinue use of Anthropic products, yet Anthropic was given six months to wind down its operations with the Department of Defense. The next day, the U.S. and Israel launched a surprise attack on Tehran, beginning a continued conflict before Trump’s directive could be fully executed.

Current Use in the Conflict

As the U.S. continues its aerial campaign against Iran, Anthropic models are being employed for targeting decisions. Although Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has pledged to designate the company as a supply‑chain risk, no official steps have been taken, so there are currently no legal barriers to using the system.

An article in The Washington Post on Wednesday uncovered new details on how Anthropic’s systems are being used alongside Palantir’s Maven platform. According to the Post, Pentagon officials planning the strikes used the systems to:

• Suggest hundreds of targets
• Issue precise location coordinates
• Prioritize targets according to importance

The article described this functionality as “real‑time targeting and target prioritization.”

Industry Response

Many defense‑industry companies have already begun replacing Anthropic models with competitors:

• Lockheed Martin and other contractors started swapping out Anthropic’s models this week, as reported by Reuters.
• A managing partner at J2 Ventures told CNBC that 10 of his portfolio companies “have backed off of their use of Claude for defense use cases and are in active processes to replace the service with another one.”

Open Questions

The biggest unanswered question is whether Hegseth will follow through on the supply‑chain risk designation, which could trigger a heated legal battle. In the meantime, one of the leading AI labs is being rapidly partitioned out of military technology—even as its models continue to be used in an active war zone.