Above photo: Alamy.
Palantir’s targeting software has been used by Israel and the US to target civilians in Gaza and Iran.
The Pentagon has designated Palantir’s Maven artificial intelligence system as an official program of record, in a move that will lock in the weapons-targeting technology long term across the US military, Reuters reported on 21 March.
The move was announced in a letter from Deputy Secretary of War Steve Feinberg issued to senior Pentagon leaders and US military commanders on 9 March.
Feinberg wrote that embedding Palantir’s Maven Smart System would provide the military “with the latest tools necessary to detect, deter, and dominate our adversaries in all domains.”
Maven is the US military’s main AI system, analyzing data from satellites, drones, radars, sensors, and reports. It uses AI to interpret data and swiftly identify and strike targets like enemy vehicles, buildings, and weapons.
The White House claims US warplanes have hit more than 7,800 targets since the war on Iran began just three weeks ago.
“It is imperative that we invest now and with focus to deepen the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) across the Joint Force and establish AI-enabled decision-making as the cornerstone of our strategy,” Feinberg wrote.
During a presentation at a Palantir event earlier this month, Pentagon official Cameron Stanley illustrated how the Maven program identifies targets.
“When we started this, it literally took hours to do what you just saw,” he said.
This how Palantir can surveil and kill people….
Palantir has just unleashed its newest AI assassination surveillance system in collaboration with the Dept of War.
You are deluded if you don’t think this will be turned against the American people, people of the UK and others. pic.twitter.com/pqz6vw4SUu
— Andrew Bridgen (@ABridgen) March 14, 2026
During the first 24 hours of the war, the US military struck more than 1,000 targets in Iran with the help of AI, as the Palantir software recommended 42 targets per hour.
According to the Sunday Times, this raised the possibility that AI may have identified the primary school in Minab as a target. On the first day of the war, the US fired several cruise missiles at the school, killing 110 school girls and dozens of others.
Palantir has helped the Israeli military develop systems such as “Lavender” and “Where’s Daddy?” to speed up the process of tracking and targeting Palestinians as part of its genocide in Gaza.
The software would track low-level members of Hamas as they returned home to their families, allowing the Israeli military to efficiently bomb their homes, killing the Hamas members and their wives and children as they slept, along with any other civilians living in the same building.
In January 2024, shortly after the genocide began, the Palantir Board of Directors held its first meeting of the year in Israel, the Institute for Palestine Studies noted.
After the meeting, Alex Karpe, Palantir’s co-founder and CEO, signed an updated agreement with the Israeli Ministry of Defense at its military headquarters.
Karp boasted that, “We are very well known in Israel. Israel appreciates our product. I am one of the very few CEOs who are publicly pro-Israel.”
Founded in 2003, Palantir was initially funded by In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm, to develop software for counterterrorism and intelligence operations.
