Palantir and Anduril’s upcoming services may be a concern for the US Army. A recent memo sent by the US Army (seen by the news agency Reuters) has warned about “fundamental security” problems in the new battlefield communications network being developed by Silicon Valley companies, including Palantir and Anduril. The internal Army memo stated the modernisation project, known as the NGC2 platform, should be treated as a “very high risk.” The memo, which came from the US Army’s chief technology officer paints a negative picture of the initial product designed to connect soldiers, sensors, vehicles, and commanders with real-time data. In the memo, the US Army wrote: “We cannot control who sees what, we cannot see what users are doing, and we cannot verify that the software itself is secure.”Palantir and Anduril, both led by allies of US President Donald Trump, secured lucrative Pentagon contracts by promising to deliver weapons that are less expensive and more sophisticated than those from traditional defence contractors.
What the US Army memo said about Palantir and Anduril’s upcoming defence services
According to a report by Reuters, US Army’s assessment of the battlefield communications network (which was first report by Breaking Defense) comes just months after defense drone and software maker Anduril was awarded $100 million to develop a prototype of NGC2, in collaboration with partners including Palantir, Microsoft, and several smaller contractors.Gabrielle Chiulli, the US Army’s chief technology officer and authorising official, described the NGC2 prototype as “very high risk” due to the “likelihood of an adversary gaining persistent undetectable access,” the Reuters report claimed.
Despite the critical assessment in the early September memo, Leonel Garciga, US Army’s chief information officer and Chiulli’s supervisor, told Reuters that the report is part of a process designed to “triage cybersecurity vulnerabilities” and implement mitigation measures.In March, the 4th Infantry Division used the system in live-fire artillery training at Fort Carson, Colorado, in an exercise that Anduril claimed demonstrated faster and more reliable performance than legacy systems.As per Reuters, the memo also highlights several major security gaps. It notes that the system allows any authorized user to access all apps and data regardless of clearance level or operational need, creating the potential for misuse of sensitive classified information without logging to track actions.
