In July 2025, Anthropic became the first AI company inside the U.S. military's classified computer networks. By February 2026, the Pentagon had labeled it a national security threat, Trump had ordered the whole government off it, and a federal judge had called the blacklisting "Orwellian." By April 2026, an appeals court let the blacklist stand.Four days ago, Axios reported — confirmed by TechCrunch and CNBC — that the National Security Agency is actively using Anthropic's newest and most powerful AI model anyway. The NSA is part of the Department of Defense. The same department arguing in court that Anthropic's tools threaten national security is running those tools in live intelligence operations right now.This piece traces the parallel to GPS: how the military wove it into everything after the Gulf War, let the backup skills disappear, and discovered what that cost when Russia started jamming the signal in Ukraine. The AI dependency is less than a year old and it's already complete. The Pentagon's own lawyer said so in court.For written reports, including all the source documents, consider becoming a subscriber at https://theripcurrent.com.