The Department of Defense is evaluating AI models from OpenAI, Google, and xAI’s Grok as replacements for Anthropic’s Claude, after Claude was effectively blacklisted from military use in late February.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated Anthropic’s products as a supply-chain risk on February 27, 2026. The core issue: Anthropic refused to remove safety restrictions that prevent its AI from being used for mass surveillance or lethal autonomous weaponry.
Anthropic secured a contract worth up to $200 million in July 2025 to integrate Claude into classified military networks. The deal unraveled when Pentagon officials pushed for unrestricted use, particularly in national security and domestic surveillance. By January 2026, reports emerged that Claude had been used for intelligence analysis and operational planning related to Iran.
Twenty-five designated military personnel are now testing the competing models on GenAI.mil, a platform operating independently of the Pentagon’s Maven Smart System. Contractors who integrated Anthropic’s technology have a six-month window to find alternatives. Anthropic has filed lawsuits over the situation.