This Friday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on missile defense interceptors, the latest on the DOD-Anthropic spat and more.

A new 87,000-square-foot facility in Troy, AL will support the quadrupled production of THAAD interceptors and future work tied to the Next Generation Interceptor program:

Lockheed launches new Alabama missile facility to support DOD munitions surge

Lockheed Martin has broken ground on a new missile production facility in Alabama that the company says will support expanded manufacturing of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptors as the Pentagon and industry push to rapidly increase munitions output.

More missile defense news:

MDA delivered report on Gulf air defense integration as region weathered Iranian attacks

The Missile Defense Agency in March delivered a report to the Gulf Cooperation Council outlining recommendations for a regional integrated air and missile early warning capability, providing the assessment just as Gulf nations faced massive Iranian retaliatory strikes triggered by U.S. and Israeli military operations.

Our colleagues at Inside AI Policy have the latest on the spat between the Defense Department and Anthropic:

Pentagon describes 'predictive' rationale for labeling Anthropic a supply-chain risk

The Defense Department appeared to walk back assertions that Anthropic had the power to exercise an "operational veto" in the use of its Claude model, saying in federal court this week that its designation of the company as a risk to the federal supply chain was based not on the existence of a back door in the technology, but about one that could have been introduced in the future.

(Check out our new online publication, Inside Defense/AI, coming soon!)

Senior Air Force officials were on Capitol Hill this week, discussing the service's fiscal year 2027 budget request:

Reed: Air Force will need to make 'tough choices' on number of F-35s in FY-27

Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI) is cautioning the Air Force about its use of separate discretionary and mandatory funding requests to buy F-35 Joint Strike Fighters next year, telling service leaders they will likely not be approved to buy all of the 38 jets they want.

Air Force to purchase 39,000 missiles by FY-33

The Air Force is on track to procure 39,000 munitions across the future years defense program, service Secretary Troy Meink said this week, hinting at high missile procurement rates in upcoming budget cycles to bulk up the Air Force’s stores of weapons.

Space Force mulls third heavy-launch site as demand increases

The Space Force has determined it will likely need a third location to launch its most high-profile satellites, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said this week.

. . . As were senior Navy officials:

CNO: Escorting commercial ships through Strait of Hormuz would 'exceed' Navy's capacity

The Navy is not equipped to escort commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle told lawmakers today, saying the mission would "exceed" the service's capacity.

The Army this week invited companies to present strategies for integrating bridge-erection boats with AI and machine learning geared toward "combat assault and logistical support missions":

Army adds unmanned bridging to autonomous solutions call

The Army has added autonomous bridge-building boats to its roster of potential use cases for unmanned systems, according to a recent commercial solutions opening.

An Autonomous Warfare Proving Ground is in development:

SOCOM calls on industry and academia for help standing up joint autonomy hub

U.S. Special Operations Command is calling on industry and academia to turn the NASA Stennis Space Center in Mississippi into a joint, state-of-the-art test and experimentation hub for autonomous systems, per a notice published earlier this week.