{"id":714598,"date":"2026-06-04T10:46:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T10:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/714598\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T10:46:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T10:46:20","slug":"defence-says-palantir-is-sandboxed-in-its-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/714598\/","title":{"rendered":"Defence says Palantir is &#8220;sandboxed&#8221; in its environment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australia\u2019s Department of Defence is using Palantir\u2019s Maven smart system in a sandboxed environment and without its AI functionality, according to officials.<\/p>\n<p>                                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"ContentPlaceHolder1_ucArticle_imgImage\" width=\"748\" height=\"420\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1780569980_686_ImageResizer.ashx.jpeg\" alt=\"Defence says Palantir is &quot;sandboxed&quot; in its environment\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Appearing before senators for budget estimates, head land capability Major General Richard Vagg briefly described the configuration of Palantir software that is in use.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe system that we\u2019re using with Palantir is the Maven smart [system],\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[It] is being used in a closed environment so it\u2019s not plugged into the Defence networks &#8211; it\u2019s called a sandbox.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vagg said that Maven \u201callows us to aggregate a whole range of data to inform targeting solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re using it so we can understand how those types of applications will inform operations in the future and provide requirements for a permanent solution and how we\u2019ll plug into the Defence Targeting Enterprise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Defence Targeting Enterprise refers to an advanced network of sensors, communications and intelligence systems that the department is investing in building.<\/p>\n<p>Vagg said that a difference between Australian Defence\u2019s use of Maven compared to other militaries elsewhere in the world is that AI functions built into the software aren\u2019t enabled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t [have the AI function initiated],\u201d Vagg said .\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He said the main use case is \u201cto understand how you would collate \u2026 data to give commanders the right situational awareness and ability to select targets on the battlefield.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Officials also sought <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crikey.com.au\/2026\/03\/09\/palantir-defence-contract-australia-embedding-staff-data-mining\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">to counter reporting by Crikey<\/a> that Palantir staff were embedded within Defence under contracts with the vendor.<\/p>\n<p>Crikey had reported the contents of a Defence contract which reportedly included details of the conditions of the vendor\u2019s engagement.<\/p>\n<p>Vagg suggested that any leaning on Palantir resources was more benign, with vendor staff assisting in the setup of the system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe use Palantir field services representatives to help us in some of the work to set up their systems, but they are in no way embedded into the organisations that are currently trialling and using that system,\u201d Vagg said.<\/p>\n<p>Defence has two active contracts with Palantir, including a $10.4 million deal signed in February this year and running through until February 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s Department of Defence is using Palantir\u2019s Maven smart system in a sandboxed environment and without its AI&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-714598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}