PNN – The Financial Times claimed in a report that Yemenis have used the “Claude” artificial intelligence to develop guidance and control systems for missiles and rockets.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network; the Financial Times reported that an arms group based in northern Yemen—likely linked to Yemen’s Ansarullah—has utilized Anthropic’s “Claude” AI to develop guidance and control systems for missiles and rockets.
According to an intelligence report by Anthropic, the group was working on three weapons programs: a guided rocket featuring a flight computer with hardware capabilities comparable to a mobile phone; a multi-stage ballistic missile with a target range exceeding 2,000 kilometers; and a series of missiles designated “R2000,” one variant of which was capable of supersonic flight.
Members of the group effectively used the “Claude Code” programming tool as a substitute for some of their software engineers. They utilized the tool to write guidance, navigation, and control software; interface autopilot systems with flight computers; configure control parameters; conduct flight simulations; and analyze test results.
These individuals simultaneously utilized multiple instances of the Claude AI, assigning a distinct task to each; for instance, one instance handled coding, another conducted research, and a third reviewed the generated code.
Anthropic stated that its security systems blocked many requests related to weapons development; however, the group managed to bypass some of the restrictions by concealing the true nature of the project and splitting their activities across multiple sessions.
The group eventually tested a guided rocket in Yemen, but the test apparently failed. Just hours later, group members returned to Claude to investigate the cause of the failure and modify the relevant software. However, Anthropic states it has no evidence that the group succeeded in producing an operational weapon system.
Anthropic reported that, prior to having their accounts blocked; the Yemeni group had created a set of offline simulation tools that did not rely on Claude or other software to function.