I am baffled the DoD/W needs to rely on a third (commercial party) for something strategic as this if they deem SI strategic. Pistols and rifles aren't the same thing.

Hire people and pay them well and develop whatever yourself without this charade, they have unlimited budgets.

I am not taking a moral ground, but I can't see how "an Anthropic" fits in. You might say Boing or Lockheed, Sig Sauer and Colt and FN do, but it feels somehow different as they've "bent the knee" for decades.