How the Pentagon's 'Friday deadline' may have come hours early for Anthropic

The US Department of War appears to have escalated the standoff with AI company Anthropic by reportedly reaching out to major defence contractors, including Boeing and Lockheed Martin, asking them to assess how they use on Anthropic’s Claude. The report comes hours before the Pentagon’s ultimatum to the AI company over the use of its AI model for military purposes.

According to a report by Axios, the Pentagon contacted two of the country's largest defence contractors and aerospace companies which is being seen as a first step toward a potential “supply chain risk” designation against Anthropic – a classification that is typically reserved for companies like China’s Huawei, and carries serious consequences.

What Boeing and Lockheed Martin said

Axios said that Boeing confirmed it has no active contracts with Anthropic.

“We sought their partnership [in the past] and ultimately could not come to an agreement. They were somewhat reluctant to work with the defense industry,” a Boeing executive was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin confirmed it had been contacted by the Defence Department for an analysis of its exposure to Anthropic ahead of a “potential supply chain risk declaration”. Moreover, the Pentagon is also expected to reach out to all major defence contractors – known as “the primes” – about whether and how they are currently using Claude, the report noted.

What its means for Anthropic

Anthropic’s Claude is currently the only AI model operating within the US military’s classified systems, which means it has already been used in sensitive operations, including the mission to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, through Anthropic's partnership with data analytics firm Palantir.

The Pentagon is said to be impressed with Claude's capabilities but has grown increasingly frustrated with Anthropic’s refusal to remove the model’s built-in safeguards, which restricts it from being used for “all lawful purposes” without having to seek approval from Anthropic for each individual use case.

Anthropic has held firm on two specific restrictions: No Claude use for the mass surveillance of American citizens and no development of fully autonomous weapons that can fire without human involvement. Tensions came to a head during a meeting this week, when Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei a stark deadline: agree to the Pentagon’s terms by 5:00pm on Friday, or face consequences.

Hegseth warned that the administration would either invoke the Defence Production Act — which would compel Anthropic to modify Claude to meet the military's requirements — or formally declare the company a supply chain risk.