U.S. Department of Defense

The Pentagon is pushing all four major AI labs to accept unrestricted military use of their models on classified networks, using the Anthropic dispute to set an industry-wide precedent. - Demanding 'all lawful purposes' AI access, threatening retaliation

Anthropic's Claude became the first commercial artificial intelligence model deployed on classified United States military networks in late 2024. Sixteen months later, the Department of Defense is threatening to label the company a "supply chain risk"—a designation normally reserved for foreign adversaries like China and Russia—because Anthropic refuses to let the military use Claude for mass surveillance of Americans or fully autonomous weapons. The standoff has escalated from a contract negotiation into something larger: the first direct confrontation between an AI company's safety commitments and the federal government's demand for unrestricted access.

Updated 4 days ago

Pentagon flagged radar interference as basis for offshore wind pause. - Coordinating national security review with Interior

On December 22, 2025, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum paused every major offshore wind farm under construction off the East Coast. Vineyard Wind, Revolution Wind, Sunrise Wind, Empire Wind, and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind—representing $28 billion in investment and enough power for millions of homes—all stopped work on orders from Washington citing radar interference and national security risks near military installations.

Updated Feb 10

The Pentagon is now treating small drones as a top acquisition priority after years of lagging behind adversaries in mass drone production. - Program administrator

The Pentagon spent $398 million on small drones in 2022. Four years later, as Ukraine demonstrated that $400 drones could destroy $10 million tanks, Congress authorized $1.7 billion—a fourfold increase. Now the Department of Defense has launched its most ambitious small-drone initiative ever: a $1.1 billion program to field more than 300,000 one-way attack drones by 2028, with the first 30,000 expected by mid-2026.

Updated Feb 4

The Pentagon manages compensation for 2.1 million active-duty and reserve personnel across six branches. - Implementing congressionally-mandated compensation increases

On January 1, 2026, every U.S. service member got a 3.8% pay raise—bringing an E-1's monthly check to $2,407. It's the third consecutive above-inflation increase Congress has delivered, part of a scramble to fix a system where junior troops qualified for food stamps and all branches except the Marines missed recruitment targets in 2023. The Army hit just 77% of its goal that year. Then Congress opened the spigot: 4.6% in 2023, 5.2% in 2024, and a historic 14.5% for junior enlisted in 2025. The strategy worked: fiscal 2025 delivered the strongest recruiting performance in 15 years, with all branches averaging 103% of goals and fiscal 2026 starting equally strong.

Updated Jan 30

The Pentagon gains money and authority in the NDAA even as Congress tightens the leash on how it fights and buys. - Gains record $901 billion authorization and acquisition reforms; faces travel‑budget restrictions if boat‑strike footage not provided to Congress.

President Trump signed a nearly $901 billion defense bill into law on December 18, 2025, cementing the 65th consecutive year Congress has passed a National Defense Authorization Act. The measure delivers troops a 3.8% pay raise, locks in $800 million in weapons support for Ukraine over two years, sets troop floors in Europe and South Korea that defy Trump's withdrawal instincts, and rewires how the Pentagon buys weapons through sweeping acquisition reforms branded as the SPEED Act. It also repeals the 2002 Iraq War authorization while embedding Trump-era cuts to climate and diversity programs across the military.

Updated Jan 9

The Pentagon is responsible for executing the policies and programs authorized in the NDAA, including USAI funding, troop deployments, readiness initiatives, and compliance with new reporting and oversight requirements. - Implementing NDAA directives on force posture, Ukraine assistance, DEI policy rollback, and border deployments

In December 2025, Congress completed work on the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), authorizing a record $901 billion in national security spending. The House passed the final compromise 312–112 on December 10, and President Donald Trump signed the bill into law on December 18 in a low-profile move without an Oval Office ceremony. The enacted package cements a 4% pay raise for service members, provides $800 million for Ukraine over two years through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), advances Trump priorities such as eliminating Pentagon DEI programs and supporting the “Golden Dome” missile-defense effort, and retains policy riders that helped drive intra-party and bipartisan friction.

Updated Dec 20, 2025

The Pentagon is running a new network of border military zones where troops can detain migrants. - Operating National Defense Areas and deploying troops on the border

Donald Trump has quietly turned long stretches of the southern border into de facto military bases. Under a new system of National Defense Areas, soldiers can stop migrants, hold them, and help prosecutors charge them as trespassers on military land.

Updated Dec 11, 2025