AI and the Risks of Tearing Down an Old System

Operation Epic Fury demonstrated that AI is central to American warfighting, with Central Command using Claude through Palantir’s Maven Smart System platform to generate and prioritize roughly 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours. This pace exceeded the opening phase of the 2003 Iraq invasion, reaching 13,000 total strikes over 38 days. The article raises concern about whether the department can properly evaluate deployed AI technology.