Axios: Pentagon’s new muscle.

Posted on March 5, 2026 by michelleclarke2015

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Axios AM
By Mike Allen · Mar 05, 2026
☀️ Hello, Thursday. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,490 words … 5½ mins. Thanks to Noah Bressner for orchestrating. Edited by Andrew Pantazi and Bill Kole.🏔️ Situational awareness: Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) announced his retirement in a surprise withdrawal just minutes before a filing deadline for candidates. Montana U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme instantly entered the race and was immediately endorsed by Daines and President Trump. Go deeper.
 
 
1 big thing: 🚀 Pentagon’s new muscle
 
A Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS) successfully launches from the deck of the USS Santa Barbara in the Persian Gulf in December. Photo: U.S. Army

In less than a week, the Iran war has revealed a remarkable string of combat firsts that showcase an American military boosted by AI and stocked with upgraded weapons, Axios Future of Defense author Colin Demarest writes.

Why it matters: America’s defense-tech advancements have been on full display during Operation Epic Fury. The Trump administration has been happy to confirm — and flex — the results.🪖 

Here’s what’s catching our eyes:

1. The U.S. military used Anthropic’s AI tools for “intelligence assessments, target identification and simulating battle scenarios,” The Wall Street Journal reports — despite President Trump’s insistence on blackballing the company. Claude is embedded in the military’s Maven Smart System, which is built by Palantir and “generating insights from an astonishing amount of classified data from satellites, surveillance and other intelligence, helping provide real-time targeting and target prioritization,” the WashPost adds.

2. U.S. troops for the first time used two highly anticipated weapons: Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM) and Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System drones (LUCAS).PrSM is a Lockheed Martin-made ballistic missile, compatible with the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. LUCAS is a low-cost drone — $35,000 a pop — that’s based on Iran’s own Shahed drone. Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper said in a video: “We took [Shahed drones] back to America, made them better, and fired them right back at Iran.”

3. The F-35, long dogged by cost overruns and delays, is having a breakthrough moment in combat.

An Israeli Air Force F-35I took out an Iranian Air Force Yak-130. The Israel Defense Forces described it as the “first shootdown in history of a manned fighter aircraft by an F-35 ‘Adir.’“

Royal Air Force F-35Bs downed drones over Jordan, according to the defense ministry.

4. A U.S. Navy submarine sank an Iranian warship with a single Mk 48 torpedo in the Indian Ocean — the first American torpedo attack to sink an enemy ship since World War II.“

To hunt, find and kill an out-of-area deployer is something that only the United States can do at this type of scale,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine said at a Pentagon briefing.🥊 

Reality check: The Defense Department’s public narrative indicates these new weapons are performing as advertised. But malfunctions aren’t the kind of thing the Pentagon rushes to disclose.Share this story.
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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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