Pentagon threatens to blacklist Anthropic over AI weapons guardrails

The Pentagon threatened to designate Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk unless the company removed contractual limits on its Claude AI system that barred use for autonomous weapons and domestic mass surveillance. Anthropic held a $200 million Pentagon contract awarded in July 2025 with two specific restrictions: no fully autonomous lethal targeting and no domestic mass surveillance. Secretary Hegseth demanded the "any lawful use" formulation that Anthropic said could override those protections.