Pentagon

Pentagon says Iran's missile fire has declined as US widens inland strikes; confirms submarine torpedo sank Iranian warship off Sri Lanka

Anthropic's moral stand on US military use of artificial intelligence is reshaping the competition between leading AI companies but also exposing a growing awareness that maybe chatbots just aren't capable enough for acts of war. Anthropic's chatbot Claude, for the first time, outpaced rival ChatGPT in phone app downloads in the United States this week, a signal of growing interest from consumers siding with Anthropic in its standoff with the Pentagon, according to market research firm Sensor Tower. The Trump administration on Friday ordered government agencies to stop using Claude and designated it a supply chain risk after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to bend his company's ethical safeguards preventing the technology from being applied to autonomous weapons and domestic mass surveillance. Anthropic has said it will challenge the Pentagon in court once it receives formal notice of the penalties. And while many military and human rights experts have applauded Amodei for standi

The Pentagon has released the names of four of the six service members who were killed in the Iran war, saying they died in a drone strike in Kuwait. All four Army Reserve soldiers were killed Sunday when a drone hit a command centre in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait. That was just a day after the US and Israel launched its military campaign against Iran, which launched retaliatory strikes. All were assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command in Des Moines, lowa. Killed were Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska; Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; and Spc. Declan J. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below.

A high-stakes dispute over military use of artificial intelligence erupted into public view this week as Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth brusquely terminated the Pentagon's work with Anthropic and other government agencies, using a law designed to counter foreign supply chain threats to slap a scarlet letter on a US company. President Donald Trump and Hegseth accused rising AI star Anthropic of endangering national security after its CEO Dario Amodei refused to back down over concerns the company's products could be used for mass surveillance or autonomous armed drones. The San Francisco-based company has vowed to sue over Hegseth's call to designate Anthropic a supply chain risk, an unprecedented move to apply a law intended to counter foreign threats to a US company. Anthropic said it would challenge what it called a legally unsound action "never before publicly applied to an American company." The looming legal battle could have huge implications on the balance of power in Big Te

The Pentagon signed agreements worth up to $200 million each with major AI labs in the past year, including Anthropic, OpenAI and Google

Shortly after, the Pentagon declared the AI developer a supply-chain risk - a designation typically reserved for companies from countries the US views as adversaries

Sam Altman says OpenAI will deploy models on the US Department of War's classified network under strict safeguards, barring domestic mass surveillance and ensuring human control over force use

Anthropic said that while the Pentagon's latest proposal fell short, the company continues to negotiate with defense officials and remains committed to working with the military

The Pentagon is pushing four AI companies to let the military use their tools for "all lawful purposes," including in areas of weapons development, intelligence collection and battlefield operations

The Pentagon allowed US Customs and Border Protection to use an anti-drone laser earlier this week, leading the Federal Aviation Administration to suddenly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas, according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details. The confusing arc of events began as the FAA announced on Wednesday that it was shutting down all flight traffic over the city on the US-Mexico border for 10 days, stranding some travellers, but the closure ended up only lasting a few hours. The Trump administration said it stemmed from the FAA and Pentagon working to halt an incursion by Mexican cartel drones, which are not uncommon along the southern border. One of the people said the laser was deployed near Fort Bliss without coordinating with the FAA, which decided then to close the airspace to ensure commercial air safety. Others familiar with the matter said the technology was used despite a meeting scheduled for ..

The US Army placed the units on prepare-to-deploy orders in case violence in the midwestern state escalates, the officials said, though it is not clear whether any of them will be sent

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok will join Google's generative AI engine in operating inside the Pentagon network, as part of a broader push to feed as much of the military's data as possible into the developing technology. Very soon we will have the world's leading AI models on every unclassified and classified network throughout our department, Hegseth said in a speech at Musk's space flight company, SpaceX, in South Texas. The announcement comes just days after Grok which is embedded into X, the social media network owned by Musk drew global outcry and scrutiny for generating highly sexualized deepfake images of people without their consent. Malaysia and Indonesia have blocked Grok, while the U.K.'s independent online safety watchdog announced an investigation Monday. Grok has limited image generation and editing to paying users. Hegseth said Grok will go live inside the Defense Department later this month and ...

The Pentagon said the contract involved foreign military sales to Israel. The U.S. has long been by far the largest arms supplier to its closest Middle East ally

The document outlines that China identifies three "core interests" that are central to national rejuvenation and not open to negotiation or compromise

A Navy admiral told lawmakers Thursday that there was no kill them all order from Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth as Congress scrutinises an attack that killed two survivors of an initial strike on an alleged drug boat in international waters near Venezuela. Adm Frank Mitch Bradley "was very clear that he was given no such order, to give no quarter or to kill them all. He was given an order that, of course, was written down in great detail, said Sen Tom Cotton, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, as he exited a classified briefing. Cotton defended the attack, but a Democrat who also was briefed said that while there was no kill them all order from Hegseth, he was still deeply concerned by video of the second strike. What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I've seen in my time in public service, Connecticut Rep Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters. You have two individuals in clear distress without any means of .

The New York Times has filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon, attempting to overturn new rules imposed by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth that have led to most mainstream media outlets being banished from the building. The newspaper said the rules violate the Constitution's freedom of speech and due process provisions, since they give Hegseth the power to determine on his own whether a reporter should be banned. Outlets such as the Times walked out of the Pentagon rather than agree to the rules as a condition for getting a press credential. The Pentagon press room now includes mostly conservative outlets that agreed to the rules, and representatives from those organisations participated Tuesday in a briefing with Hegseth's press secretary. The policy is an attempt to exert control over reporting the government dislikes, said Charles Stadtlander, spokesman for the Times. The newspaper filed the case with the U.S. District Court in Washington on Thursday. The Pentagon had no immediate

The Pentagon's watchdog found that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth put US personnel and their mission at risk when he used the Signal messaging app to convey sensitive information about a military strike against Houthi militants in Yemen, two people familiar with the findings said Wednesday. Hegseth, however, has the ability to declassify material and the report did not find he did so improperly, according to one of the people familiar with the report's findings who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the information. CNN first reported the initial findings. The review by the Pentagon inspector general's office was delivered to lawmakers, who were able to review the report in a classified facility at the Capitol. A partially redacted version of the report was expected to be released publicly later this week. The findings ramp up the pressure on the former Fox News Channel host after lawmakers had called for the independent inquiry into his use of the commercially available app

The Pentagon has rolled out a new policy that will severely undercut the ability for transgender troops who have been banned from the armed forces by the Trump administration to turn to boards of their peers to argue for their right to stay in the military, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press. If military separation boards decide to allow transgender service members to remain in uniform, commanders can override that decision, according to an Oct 8 memo to all the services from the Pentagon's undersecretary for personnel and readiness, Anthony Tata. That breaks with longstanding policy that boards act independently. It is the Pentagon's latest step to drive transgender troops out of the armed forces following an executive order from President Donald Trump. He and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth have targeted diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in what they say is an effort to make the military more lethal. The adminstration's policies have faced pushback in the .

The Pentagon confirmed that it has accepted an anonymous USD 130 million gift to help pay members of the military during the government shutdown, raising ethical questions after President Donald Trump had announced that a friend had offered the gift to defray any shortfalls. While large and unusual, the gift amounts to a small contribution toward the billions needed to cover service member paychecks. The Trump administration told Congress last week that it used USD 6.5 billion to make payroll. The next payday is coming within the week, and it is unclear if the administration will again move money around to ensure the military does not go without compensation. That's what I call a patriot, Trump said during a White House event Thursday when he disclosed the payment from the donor. The president declined to name the person, whom he called a friend of mine, saying the man didn't want the recognition. The Pentagon confirmed it had accepted the donation on Thursday under its general gif

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's plane made an unscheduled landing in the United Kingdom because a windshield cracked on a flight back to the US from a NATO meeting and all aboard are safe, the Pentagon said. The plane landed "based on standard procedures", Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a post on X. After Hegseth left Brussels, open source flight trackers spotted his C-32 lose altitude and begin broadcasting an emergency signal. No members of the Pentagon press corps were travelling with Hegseth, as was regular practice under previous defence secretaries. Instead, Pentagon reporters were emptying their desks and cleaning out their workspaces after rejecting new rules for journalists based in the Pentagon. In February, an Air Force C-32 carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Jim Risch, was similarly forced to return to Washington after an issue with the cockpit windshield. The incident occurred about 90 minu