Scoop: Palantir fights Pentagon over key intelligence contract

Palantir is battling the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency for the ability to bid for a contract to modernize its data analytics system, according to a filing obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: Palantir’s already massive foothold at the Pentagon could eventually expand to an agency tasked with providing foreign military intelligence to prevent and win wars.

What’s inside: Palantir argues in its protest that the DIA is wasting taxpayer money, and flouting the law, by refusing to consider a commercial solution for its data analytics modernization efforts.

• The agency launched MARS (Machine-assisted Analytic Rapid-repository System) eight years ago and has been developing it ever since to replace a Cold War-era system.
• Palantir claims the DIA is pouring money into trying to build the system from scratch, with unreliable results, rather than opting for a commercial solution.
• Palantir declined to comment. DIA didn’t immediately respond.

The White House wants any company to be able to compete, a senior Trump national security official told Axios.

• “The president has issued several EOs pushing to field the best tech the private sector has to offer,” the official said.
• “I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s swift action to remedy this and ensure any company that wants to compete is given a fair chance.”

A DIA spokesperson told Axios that MARS “used predominantly commercial off the shelf software to create a modular open system architecture consistent with executive orders and SECWAR Acquisition Transformation Strategy.”

• “Although we do not comment on ongoing litigation, DIA is committed to the maximum extent practicable to acquire commercial products and services consistent with law and policy to continue to meet joint force and national security needs, including within the Machine-assisted Analytic Rapid-repository System.”

What’s next: The General Services Administration, DIA or Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth himself could move to cancel MARS and “fundamentally reimagine the program,” given the advances in AI since the program’s creation nearly a decade ago, the official added.

This story was updated with comment from the DIA.

المصدر: Axios