All articles tagged with #department of defense
The Department of Defense spent about $3.6 billion in Maine on defense contractors during the 2024 budget year, highlighted by major players like Bath Iron Works (General Dynamics) and Pratt & Whitney and a range of smaller firms that collectively power the state’s defense-focused manufacturing sector.
Alibaba filed a petition in the Northern District of California asking a federal court to remove the Pentagon’s designation of Alibaba as a Chinese military company from the DoD list that bars such entities from U.S. defense contracts, arguing the label has no factual or legal basis and was issued without fair process. The case follows broader tensions over the DoD’s 188-entity list, which Beijing and several companies have protested, and comes as other firms like DJI and WuXi AppTec challenge their own designations. Alibaba says it operates with an independent board and has no military affiliation, countering DoD claims of indirect state links through China’s SASAC and other ministries.
Republican lawmakers are backing the Trump-ordered bid to rename the Defense Department the Department of War, inserting language into must-pass defense bills to make the change official. The measure has advanced in early House and Senate versions but faces Democratic and procedural hurdles, and it would also rename Army bases honoring Confederate figures. The plan carries a price tag—CBO estimates costs could reach about $125 million.
This opinion piece argues Hegseth's 'streamlining' of DoD religious designations to favor Christian labels exposes Christian nationalism as incoherent and exclusionary, revealing intra-Christian tensions (notably with Mormons) and a broader threat to religious freedom as the movement defines who counts as 'American'.
An federal appeals court panel signaled it would not side with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in his bid to censure and demote Sen. Mark Kelly over a November video in which Kelly urged service members to refuse illegal orders, effectively upholding the lower court’s blocking ruling and underscoring that Kelly did not say the words Hegseth claimed.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the Department of Defense will make the annual influenza vaccine voluntary for all active and reserve service members and DoD civilians, ending the long-standing mandatory flu-shot policy and framing the move as restoring freedom and readiness; the change follows prior steps to scale back service-member vaccination mandates and maintains vaccination as a key readiness tool.
Gizmodo reports Anthropic left public files revealing Claude Mythos, a rumored ‘most powerful’ model described as far ahead in cyber capabilities and potentially too dangerous to release, prompting the DoD to celebrate and fueling investor chatter about a future IPO while critics question governance and security practices.
The U.S. Department of Justice told a federal court that Anthropic’s designation as a supply-chain risk and restrictions on Claude AI for Pentagon use are lawful, arguing the government did not violate Anthropic’s First Amendment rights and that security concerns justify limiting access to DoD systems. Anthropic contends the government overstepped its authority and seeks relief in a lawsuit that could cost the company billions in revenue; a hearing is scheduled as the Defense Department weighs replacing Anthropic’s tools with offerings from Google, OpenAI, and xAI while the case unfolds.
Defense Department CTO Emil Michael said Anthropic’s Claude AI models would pollute the defense supply chain due to baked-in policy preferences, justifying a supply-chain-risk designation that could jeopardize hundreds of millions in contracts. Anthropic has sued the Trump administration to overturn the designation, arguing it is unlawful and harms its business. The designation requires contractors to certify they don’t use Claude; Anthropic has published Claude’s constitution, describing how it shapes the model’s safe and ethical behavior. Despite the blacklist, Claude has been used to support U.S. military operations in Iran, and the DoD says a transition plan is in place to move away from Anthropic, noting the change cannot be done overnight.
An Iranian drone strike on a Kuwait port facility that killed six U.S. service members also produced injuries described as more severe than initially reported, including brain trauma, burns and shrapnel, with at least one case possibly leading to amputation. Survivors recalled smoke and chaos at the Shuaiba port, where the unit reportedly lacked hardened protections. Pentagon figures say about 140 U.S. service members were hurt in the first 10 days of the U.S.-Israel campaign against Iran, with 108 returning to duty and eight still severely injured, and more than 30 hospitalized in the U.S. and overseas. The Defense Department later disputed earlier characterizations of the strike, emphasizing protective measures for troops. The dead include Sgt. Nicole Amor and five others; a seventh service member, Sgt. Benjamin Pennington, was killed in a separate strike in Saudi Arabia.
Anthropic filed a lawsuit against the Department of Defense and other federal agencies after the Trump administration designated the company a “supply chain risk” and ordered agencies to stop using its Claude AI. The suit argues the designation and directive are unlawful, infringe First Amendment rights, and threaten hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts, seeking injunctive relief to protect current and future business. The case underscores a broader clash over AI use in government, with Anthropic asserting it can work with the Pentagon while upholding redlines against mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.
OpenAI’s robotics hardware lead Caitlin Kalinowski has resigned, criticizing the rushed announcement of a Department of Defense deal and the lack of clearly defined guardrails around issues like surveillance and autonomous weapons; OpenAI says there are no plans to replace her and emphasizes the agreement includes safety boundaries amid broader scrutiny of AI governance.
Caitlin Kalinowski, OpenAI's head of robotics, announced her resignation, saying the DoD partnership was rushed and guardrails weren’t defined. OpenAI emphasized that the Pentagon deal aims for responsible national-security AI with red lines—no domestic surveillance and no autonomous weapons—and said it will continue governance discussions as industry debate over safeguards continues.
The Pentagon has designated Anthropic a supply chain risk—the first such label for a US company—restricting its use by the DoD; Anthropic plans to sue, arguing the designation is legally flawed and narrowly scoped, as talks with defense officials stall and partners like Microsoft continue to use Anthropic technology for non-defense purposes.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told staff that operational decisions on how its AI is used by the DoD rest with the government, not OpenAI, after a Pentagon deal. The Pentagon will seek input and allow OpenAI to deploy its safety stack, while retaining ultimate decision authority with a DoD official, amid criticism and competitive dynamics with Anthropic and xAI.