Brad Cooper
CENTCOM commander who confirmed the use of advanced AI tools in Operation Epic Fury against Iran, making him the senior military figure publicly linking AI systems to active combat operations.
Admiral Brad Cooper serves as Commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), the combatant command responsible for military operations across the Middle East, Central Asia, and parts of South Asia. CENTCOM’s area of responsibility includes Iran and the broader Persian Gulf region, placing Cooper at the center of U.S. military operations during the escalation with Iran in early 2026.
AI in Operation Epic Fury
Cooper publicly confirmed the use of “advanced AI tools” in Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. military campaign against Iranian targets. His confirmation was significant because it established, on the record, that AI systems were being used in active combat operations — not just logistics, intelligence analysis, or back-office functions, but in the operational warfighting chain. The specific AI tools were not named publicly, but the timeline and context aligned with the period when Claude was deployed on classified military networks via Palantir’s AIP platform.
The Operational Stakes
Cooper’s statements gave concrete weight to the otherwise abstract debate between Anthropic and the Pentagon. When Hegseth demanded AI models “free from usage policy constraints,” Cooper’s operations were the reason — CENTCOM needed AI tools that would function without restrictions during combat. The tension between Anthropic’s safety guardrails and the military’s operational requirements was not hypothetical; it was playing out in real-time targeting, intelligence fusion, and mission planning across the CENTCOM theater.