The White House and Pentagon are considering deploying at least 10,000 additional combat troops to the Middle East, adding to the 82nd Airborne elements and Marine expeditionary units already en route, as officials develop "final blow" options against Iran that could include a ground assault or blockade of Kharg Island, the country's main oil export hub.

Trump extended his pause on strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure by 10 days to April 6, citing ongoing negotiations through intermediaries Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey, but Iranian officials deny any formal talks are underway and have publicly called the diplomatic push a ruse designed to enable a surprise attack.

The dual-track posture, military buildup alongside diplomatic outreach, reflects a war that is consuming significant interceptor inventory, has wounded more than 300 U.S. service members, and is now straining Gulf partners as Iran's IRGC enforces a de facto toll regime in the Strait of Hormuz, charging vessels in yuan for safe passage.

U.S. District Judge Rita Lin issued a preliminary injunction Thursday blocking the Pentagon's designation of Anthropic as a "supply chain risk" and pausing President Trump's directive ordering all federal agencies to cease using Claude, ruling that the measures appeared arbitrary, capricious, and designed to punish the company for publicly opposing the DoD's contracting position rather than address any legitimate national security concern.

The dispute stems from a $200 million Pentagon contract signed in July 2025: talks broke down when the DoD demanded unfettered access to Claude for all lawful purposes, while Anthropic drew two lines, refusing to allow its models to be used in fully autonomous weapons or for domestic mass surveillance of Americans. The Pentagon's supply chain risk designation, previously reserved for foreign adversaries, then required defense contractors, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Palantir, to certify they had severed ties with Anthropic.

Lin's 43-page ruling called the action "Orwellian" and found it likely violated Anthropic's First Amendment and due process rights. The order is stayed for seven days to allow the government to appeal, and does not require the Pentagon to resume using Claude. A separate case contesting the designation through a different legal authority is pending at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Northrop Grumman engineers at the company's Microelectronic Center are testing lab-grown diamonds, smaller than a grain of sand, as receiver-protection components for military radar and radio-frequency systems. Early trials produced a device capable of handling more than 100 watts, reportedly double the wattage of comparable devices currently on the market.

Diamond's extreme heat resistance, electrical conductivity, and durability give it significant advantages over conventional silicon and gallium nitride alternatives, potentially allowing military platforms to better withstand power spikes while maintaining signal clarity. The chips currently measure one millimeter in length and are designed for both airborne platforms and space missions.

Research began in 2019, and Northrop is now working with Arizona State University's Southwest Advanced Prototyping Hub to scale the technology to larger formats. While operational deployment is not yet confirmed, Northrop says early results "greatly surpass" those of conventional solutions, and the chips' small footprint could enable further miniaturization across next-generation military systems.

MBDA CEO Eric Béranger announced a €5 billion ($5.8 billion) investment plan over the next five years, including the hiring of 2,800 new workers, as the company reported 2025 revenues of €5.8 billion ($6.7 billion), a record order intake of €13.2 billion ($15.2 billion), and a backlog of €44.4 billion ($51.3 billion). 70% of new orders came from European customers, reflecting an alliance-wide rearmament surge driven by the war in Ukraine and, now, the conflict in Iran.

MBDA said it delivered five times more Aster air-defense missiles than originally planned in 2025 and has quadrupled Mistral production capacity since 2022 by adding new factory buildings, extending shifts to around-the-clock operations, and recruiting more than 2,700 workers last year. For 2026, the company is targeting an additional 40 percent increase in output, with Aster production set to double, driven by high demand from Middle Eastern customers and surging requests for the MICA air-to-air missile.

Béranger said the €5 billion investment plan was finalized before the Iran conflict began and that further upside evaluations are already underway, a signal that actual capital allocation could exceed the announced figure. He also confirmed that Italy has joined the Stratus LO missile development program, the successor to Storm Shadow and Exocet, with the development phase set to launch imminently following French and British government commitments.

The Pentagon confirmed that BlackSea's Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARC), an angular five-meter speedboat, has been deployed for maritime patrols as part of Operation Epic Fury, the first time the U.S. has acknowledged using autonomous surface vessels in an active conflict. CENTCOM spokesperson Tim Hawkins said the GARC has logged more than 450 underway hours and 2,200 nautical miles during patrols in support of the campaign.

The deployment comes despite a troubled development history: Reuters reported last year that the GARC experienced multiple performance and safety issues in testing, including a collision with another vessel at speed, and one GARC reportedly became inoperable during a recent failed test in the Middle East. Iran has used sea drones to attack oil tankers in the Gulf at least twice since the war began, adding urgency to the U.S. push to operationalize unmanned surface systems.

The confirmation validates years of Pentagon investment in autonomous surface vessels as a lower-cost complement to manned warships, particularly for surveillance and presence missions in contested maritime environments. It also marks a real-world stress test for the GARC ahead of the Navy's broader Golden Fleet push to field large numbers of unmanned surface vessels as part of its updated fleet architecture.

The Navy released a prototype request for proposals for a new Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel (MUSV) Family of Systems marketplace, terminating the previous Modular Attack Surface Craft (MASC) program in favor of a model that rewards proven, production-ready maritime drone designs with a $15 million test completion award and a fast path to a fiscal year 2027 production or leasing contract. Vendors must respond by April 17.

Rebecca Gassler, the Navy's first portfolio acquisition executive for robotic and autonomous systems, said the MUSV marketplace is the first in a planned series covering the full family of unmanned surface vessel types. The new approach prioritizes modular, containerized payloads that can be swapped on and off like shipping containers, enabling rapid mission reconfiguration across surveillance, electronic warfare, and strike roles without lengthy ship overhauls.

Funding for the new MUSV fleet is expected to draw from the nearly $5 billion proposed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by President Trump, and the effort is a central component of the Golden Fleet initiative that envisions autonomous vessels operating alongside next-generation manned battleships. The Navy said it intends to qualify as many vendors as possible to understand surge capacity over time.

Shield AI announced a $1.5 billion Series G round led by Advent International and co-led by JPMorgan Chase's Security and Resiliency Initiative, plus $500 million in preferred equity financing from Blackstone, with an additional $250 million delayed-draw facility, valuing the company at $12.7 billion post-money. The proceeds will partly fund the acquisition of Aechelon Technology, a defense simulation company whose high-fidelity synthetic-reality platform is used to train pilots and test autonomous systems, including within the Pentagon's Joint Simulation Environment.

The Aechelon acquisition is designed to deepen Shield AI's Hivemind autonomy platform by integrating simulation-based AI pilot training with real-world operational data, accelerating development of the Hivemind Foundation Model for Defense. Hivemind already pilots 26 classes of vehicles, including F-16s, jet-powered UAVs, helicopters, and drone boats, and was recently selected by the Air Force as a mission autonomy provider for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program.

The raise also funds development of the X-BAT, Shield AI's AI-piloted VTOL fighter jet program. With Advent Chairman David Mussafer joining the board and JPMorgan's Todd Combs joining as observer, the round marks a significant institutional validation of the defense AI sector at scale and positions Shield AI as one of the best-capitalized autonomous systems companies in the market.

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