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Sri Lanka declined ground access to two US combat aircraft, president saysBy Uditha JayasingheMarch 20, 2026COLOMBO, March 20 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka declined permission for two U.S. combat aircraft to land at a civilian airport earlier this month, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake told parliament on Friday.The U.S. had requested permission for the two aircraft to land at the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in the southern part of the country from March 4-8, Dissanayake told lawmakers.The Reuters Iran Briefing newsletter keeps you informed with the latest developments and analysis of the Iran war. Sign up here."They wanted to bring two warplanes armed with eight anti-ship missiles from a base in Djibouti," he said during a statement."We turned down the request to maintain Sri Lanka's neutrality," he added to applause from parliamentarians.The U.S. had made the request on February 26. The same day Iran requested three of its ships to make a goodwill visit to Sri Lanka from March 9-13 after participating in an Indian naval exercise. That request was also denied.The U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, leading to a regional war that has severely restricted energy supplies and rattled markets."We were considering this request. Had we said 'yes' to Iran, we would have had to say 'yes' to the U.S. as well," he added.Sri Lanka's navy rescued 32 Iranian crew off IRIS Dena on March 4 after it was torpedoed by a U.S. submarine, in an attack that killed at least 84.A second ship, IRIS Booshehr, and its crew were rescued by the Sri Lankan navy after it developed technical issues just beyond the island nation's territorial waters.U.S. Special Envoy for South and Central Asia Sergio Gor is currently visiting Sri Lanka and met Dissanayake on Thursday.Sri Lanka, which is recovering from a severe financial crisis that peaked in 2022 and was caused by a shortfall of dollars, faces a supply squeeze linked to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.The U.S. is Sri Lanka's largest export market while Iran is one of its key tea buyers.Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe; Editing by Sharon Singleton
Exclusive: Pentagon to adopt Palantir AI as core US military system, memo saysBy David JeansMarch 20, 2026SummaryLetter emphasizes Palantir's AI as cornerstone of Pentagon strategyPalantir's Maven uses AI to help identify targets for strikesMaking Maven program of record would secure long-term funding for PalantirNEW YORK, March 20 (Reuters) - Palantir’s (PLTR.O), opens new tab Maven artificial intelligence system will become an official program of record, Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg said in a letter to Pentagon leaders, a move that locks in long-term use of Palantir’s weapons-targeting technology across the U.S. military.In the March 9 letter to senior Pentagon leaders and U.S. military commanders, Feinberg said embedding Palantir’s Maven Smart System would provide warfighters “with the latest tools necessary to detect, deter, and dominate our adversaries in all domains”.The decision is expected to go into effect by the close of the current fiscal year, which ends in September, according to the letter, which was reviewed by Reuters and has not been previously reported.Maven is a command-and-control software platform that analyzes battlefield data and identifies targets. It is already the primary AI operating system for the U.S. military, which has carried out thousands of targeted strikes against Iran over the last three weeks.Designating Maven as a program of record will streamline its adoption across all arms of the military and provide stable, long-term funding, Feinberg said.The memo ordered oversight of Maven be moved from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency to the Pentagon’s Chief Digital Artificial Intelligence Office within 30 days. Future contracting with Palantir will be handled by the Army, the letter said.“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.Palantir and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The Palantir logo is seen in this illustration taken August 3, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration PALANTIR RISES FURTHER AT THE PENTAGONFeinberg’s order is a significant win for Palantir, which has landed a growing stream of contracts with the U.S. government, including a deal announced last summer with the U.S. Army worth up to $10 billion. Those awards have helped double the company’s stock price in the past year, lifting its market value to nearly $360 billion.Maven can rapidly analyze huge amounts of data from satellites, drones, radars, sensors and intelligence reports, and use AI to automatically identify potential threats or targets, like enemy military vehicles, buildings and weapons stockpiles.During a presentation at a Palantir event earlier this month, Pentagon official Cameron Stanley, who leads its AI office, demonstrated how the company’s Maven platform could be used for weapons targeting in the Middle East, and he showed heat map screenshots from the Maven platform.“When we started this, it literally took hours to do what you just saw," he said, according to a YouTube video uploaded, opens new tab by the company last week.United Nations expert panels have warned AI weapons targeting without human intervention raises ethical, legal and security risks since AI picks up inadvertent biases from the data sets used to train it.Palantir says its software does not make lethal decisions and humans remain responsible for selecting and approving targets.Palantir developed its AI system to serve the Pentagon’s Project Maven, which began as a drone-imagery labeling program in 2017. In 2024, the Pentagon awarded Palantir a contract worth up to $480 million. That year, Palantir’s Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar told the House Armed Services Committee, opens new tab that Maven had “tens of thousands” of users and urged Congress to provide more funding. In May 2025, the Pentagon increased the contract ceiling to $1.3 billion.One potential complication in deeper Maven adoption is the software’s use of the Anthropic-made Claude AI tool, Reuters previously reported. Anthropic was recently deemed a supply chain risk by the Pentagon, amid a months-long spat over safety guardrails surrounding the AI.Reporting by David Jeans; Editing by Joe Brock and Cynthia Osterman
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