TL;DR
Trump signed NSPM-11, ordering rapid military AI adoption and barring vendors from disabling models without approval. Hegseth must update autonomous weapons policy.
President Trump signed a national security presidential memorandum on Friday ordering the US military and intelligence agencies to accelerate their adoption of cutting-edge AI. The directive, NSPM-11, establishes a framework for “rapid onboarding of the most advanced AI models from multiple vendors.” It also bars any company from disabling, degrading, or modifying an AI system that warfighters depend on without prior government approval.
That vendor restriction is the most striking provision. It means an AI company cannot pull a deployed model from military use unilaterally, even if the company has safety concerns about how it is being used. The clause lands directly in the context of the Pentagon’s ongoing feud with Anthropic, which was blacklisted as a supply chain risk after refusing to allow its Claude models to be used for autonomous weapons or mass surveillance.
“The men and women who defend our nation deserve the best, most secure and most reliable AI in the world,” said Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The memo also directs Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to issue an updated directive on autonomous weapon systems within 90 days. That update would revise DoD Directive 3000.09, the foundational Pentagon policy governing when and how autonomous and semi-autonomous weapons can be used, including requirements for human judgment before lethal force is applied.
There are stated limits. The memo prohibits defence agencies from creating or releasing AI models designed to “censor free speech, embed ideological bias or conduct unlawful surveillance against the American people.” But it does not define those terms or explain how compliance would be enforced.
The directive follows Tuesday’s executive order that established a voluntary 30-day review window for frontier AI models before public release. Together, the two documents outline a dual approach: light-touch regulation for the commercial sector and aggressive adoption for the military.
The “multiple vendors” language signals a shift away from single-provider dependency. Until recently, Anthropic was the only AI vendor approved for classified military use. After the Pentagon signed classified deals with Nvidia, Microsoft, and AWS, the administration is now formalising a multi-vendor approach.
The memo makes accountability central. Commanders, directors, and agency heads remain responsible for ensuring AI is used in line with its stated obligations. Annual reviews of key guidance across the national security enterprise are required to keep pace with the AI frontier. Whether those reviews will be meaningful or performative remains an open question.
