Startup Plans Cloned Super Dogs for Battlefield

On a future battlefield, the Pentagon's canine units could all be clones. A Texas startup called Warhound plans to clone and genetically tweak elite working dogs so they move faster, smell better, and dodge inherited health problems—all in pursuit of "a military super dog," reports the Wall Street Journal. Warhound, conceived by Colossal Biosciences' Ben Lamm and Anduril's Palmer Luckey, has raised $200 million from backers including CIA-linked In-Q-Tel and Sequoia Capital, valuing it at $1.2 billion. The federal government's interest is unclear, though Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently chose Luckey to serve on a committee studying the future of warfare.

Warhound wants to "onshore" the supply of working dogs, now mostly bought from overseas, starting with Belgian Malinois and German shepherds and expanding to other breeds. The dogs are to get an extra boost with high-tech armor and sensors supplied by Anduril, a defense firm. The startup's first litters are expected next year and backers hope the dogs can enter service within two years, per Interesting Engineering, even as ethicists log concerns. As Harvard University's Lisa Moses tells Scientific American, "It requires a lot of dogs to have invasive things done to them and to be killed in order to produce one cloned puppy."