The U.S. Department of Defense has announced that it has "stopped using Anthropic's AI products, including the Claude model."

This measure comes eight months after the U.S. Department of Defense designated Anthropic as a "supply chain risk company" citing national security reasons last February.

Last February, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated Anthropic as a "supply chain risk company," and the Department of Defense announced it would halt the use of Anthropic's products by the end of August, but the cessation was delayed by two months.

Sources said that until last week, the U.S. Department of Defense had used Anthropic's Claude model for research, analysis, intelligence gathering, and even in the war with Iran.

Until recently, the Claude model was used as a crucial tool for sorting through massive amounts of information.

Anthropic's AI products have been used by the U.S. government and military since 2024, and the company's AI tools were the first advanced tools deployed to government agencies performing classified work.

However, earlier this year, when the U.S. Department of Defense pressured Anthropic to "remove Claude's safety guardrails and allow the military unrestricted access to Anthropic's AI products," Anthropic refused, citing "concerns over mass surveillance and autonomous weapons."

In response, Secretary Hegseth designated Anthropic as a national security supply chain risk company.

It was a legal measure applied to companies based in countries that pose a threat to the United States.

Anthropic protested that the measure was "unprecedented and unlawful" and filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit dismissed Anthropic's request to invalidate the Department of Defense's blacklisting measure last month and sided with the government.

While the legal battle was ongoing, the U.S. Department of Defense signed contracts with other major tech companies, including Google, xAI, and OpenAI.

In recent months, OpenAI's tools have been more widely adopted within parts of the military.

According to sources, the Claude model was integrated into the Maven Smart System, a large-scale data platform used by the Department of Defense.

Maven, operated by Palantir, is a core platform used by the U.S. Department of Defense to organize intelligence and data.

Lauren Kahn, a senior research analyst at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology, said that because Claude was deeply integrated into Maven, it would have been difficult to swiftly remove it from the system.

Kahn, who has experience working at the Department of Defense, said, "The fact that it has taken until now for the Department of Defense to completely remove the use of Claude across its systems shows that these technologies are not 'plug and play.'"