Pentagon Used Anthropic’s Claude in Iran Operations, Reports Say
Mar 2nd 2026
Wall Street Journal and Axios report that CENTCOM used Anthropic’s Claude for operational analysis in Iran even as a senior Defense official publicly criticized the company and restricted its use among contractors.
- CENTCOM reportedly used Anthropic’s Claude for intelligence assessments, target identification and battle simulations in Iran.
- Defense official Pete Hegseth publicly denounced Anthropic while allowing the Department of Defense limited continued access to its services for up to six months.
- Anthropic’s terms restrict certain military uses and CEO Dario Amodei says the company will work with the Pentagon only within its red lines.
- Anthropic’s consumer app Claude has surged in downloads and the company says daily signups have tripled over the past four months.
- OpenAI has a separate agreement with the Pentagon for classified use and says it favored a different level of operational control than Anthropic.