Hunter, a former Marine who has served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, sees it as a life-or-death issue and has formally requested an investigation by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "Lives are at stake," Hunter told Fox News. 

"The idea that ground combat units in Afghanistan are being denied intelligence tools that are requested and readily available is unsettling and underscores a major failure in a process that is intended to deliver resources to the warfighter as quickly as possible," Hunter wrote in a letter to the committee. "This is evidently a systemic problem that cannot go unaddressed." 

His office expects the investigation to be announced in the coming days. 

Seventy-two out of 187 American troops killed in Afghanistan so far this year were victims of improvised explosive devices. 

Meanwhile, the Army says it's working to integrate Palantir into more of its computer systems.