The Pentagon has given Anthropic until 5:01pm Friday to agree to unrestricted military use of Claude — or face the Defense Production Act and supply chain blacklisting. On the same day the ultimatum was issued, Anthropic published a comprehensive rewrite of its Responsible Scaling Policy, removing its foundational commitment to pause model training if safety can't keep pace with capability. Two stories. Same company. Same twenty-four hours.

**In this episode:**

- Hegseth's Tuesday meeting with Amodei — the demand, the threats, the Cold War-era law aimed at software for the first time

- The competitive encirclement: xAI on classified networks, OpenAI and Google close behind

- RSP v3.0: what was removed, what replaced it, and why Anthropic says the old framework was untenable

- METR's Chris Painter on "triage mode" and the water boiling before the thermometer's in

- Reading Tuesday's two stories together — and what's left when institutional commitments become personal ones

**Links:**

- Axios — Hegseth gives Anthropic until Friday: https://www.axios.com/2026/02/24/anthropic-pentagon-claude-hegseth-dario

- NBC News — Anthropic offered missile defence access: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/anthropic-pentagon-us-military-can-use-ai-missile-defense-hegseth-rcna260534

- TIME — Anthropic Drops Flagship Safety Pledge: https://time.com/7380854/exclusive-anthropic-drops-flagship-safety-pledge/

- Lawfare — What the DPA Can and Can't Do: https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/what-the-defense-production-act-can-and-can't-do-to-anthropic

- Anthropic — RSP v3.0 announcement: https://www.anthropic.com/news/responsible-scaling-policy-v3

- Chris Painter on X — capability evaluation: https://x.com/ChrisPainterYup/status/2019534216405606623

**Referenced in this episode:**

- EP019: Claude Goes to War — the opening chapter of the Pentagon standoff

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