New Company Wants to Build Better Military Dogs

More than 80% of the dogs serving in the U.S. military are brought in from Europe, and fewer than half of those animals are fit for service. A new startup called Warhound is stepping in with $200 million in funding to address this shortage by engineering dogs specifically for the job. The round values the company at $1.2 billion.

The company emerged from stealth on October 22, backed by investors including Sequoia, 8VC, Corner Ventures, and In-Q-Tel, the venture firm supported by the CIA. The plan is to create animals designed for tasks that are dangerous for humans or difficult for machines, such as bomb detection and specialized searches.

The partnership began roughly a year ago when Colossal Biosciences’ Ben Lamm met Anduril’s Palmer Luckey at a conference. Luckey suggested more should be done for the military's working dogs. Lamm then researched how these animals are bred and discovered that many fail training because of inherited issues.

Lamm found that some dogs struggle with poor eyesight, while others face a high likelihood of cancer, hip dysplasia, or muscle atrophy. Lamm believed that dogs could be enhanced for health, longevity, and “for things like speed and agility or enhance olfactory sensors for bomb sniffing and whatnot,” he said.

Warhound's process involves taking cell lines from top-performing breeds like the Belgian Malinois and German Shepherd. These living cells are stored in a biobank. From there, the team will edit the dogs’ genes, adding ones that will improve performance and removing ones that will not, to create “a new type of dog.”

The genetic work comes from Colossal Biosciences, which is known for efforts to bring back extinct animals like the dodo and the mammoth. On the equipment side, Anduril will provide software and hardware, such as protection vests and goggles, to assist the dogs and their handlers. Lamm said to imagine bulletproof vests with data sensors that send information back to the handlers.

Lamm said to imagine, for example, bulletproof vests with data sensors that send information back to the handlers so they can better understand what is happening. “The idea is, if we make the dog safer, make it healthier, make it perform better, it’s going to perform better in the line of duty,” Lamm said. He added that Anduril’s additions will make the dogs safer and healthier beyond their genetics, “on top of the dog, not in the dog.”

Regarding the timeline, the first batch of dogs is about to be cloned and incubated, with births expected early next year and service ideally beginning within two years. Viagen, another Colossal-owned company, will partner with Warhound to clone the dogs. Warhound doesn't know yet how much it will charge for the dogs.

The company is working under the guidance of the American Humane Society to help certify Warhound’s training program. The American Humane Society said, “We applaud Warhound and Colossal for inviting the country’s first national humane organization, which is grounded in science and ethics, to have a seat at the table.”