A military drone maker in Costa Mesa is teaming up with a biosciences firm in Dallas to reinvent the way the military and law enforcement source animals. Warhound is the brainchild of technology entrepreneurs Ben Lamm of Colossal Biosciences and Palmer Luckey of Anduril. The firm, which recently received $200 million in seed funding, aims to clone and genetically engineer service dogs for the military. The animals would be specifically created for the task, genetically enhanced and armed with high-tech gear, giving them enhanced capabilities on the battlefield.
The company aims to start with Belgian Malinois and German shepherds and has already collected genetic material from existing dogs. These new animals would “fundamentally change how America produces, trains, and protects its military working dogs,” according to Scientific American. Warhound says their methods could create larger dogs, eliminate disease and inherited conditions from the animals, while introducing genes that could improve their performance. Animals could also be equipped with Anduril’s AI-powered mixed-reality and digital vision helmets.
Co-founder Lamm also runs Colossal Biosciences, a firm seeking to bring back new versions of the woolly mammoth, Tasmanian tiger and dodo bird through genetic engineering. Wired reports that Warhound is “incorporating olfactory receptor genes from wolves to ‘enhance’ the military dogs.”
The U.S. Army established its first K-9 unit during World War II and has long sourced the specialized animals from Europe. Training can take up to three years, and only half the animals that enter the program graduate to military service. The new company seeks to bring this process to the United States and employ a more scientific process in breeding. The company expects the first litters early next year.
“Modern biotechnology gives us a more precise way to shape some of their traits,” Alta Charo, Warren P. Knowles Professor Emerita of Law and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison said in a statement. “Thus improving both the work dogs do and their own health and well-being.” The American Humane Society will certify the company’s programs.
Palmer Luckey was a teenager in Long Beach when he came up with the idea for what would become the Oculus VR headset, which he sold to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014. “I’m a self-taught engineer, a hacker, a maker, an electronics enthusiast,” he told Eurogamer in 2013. “I like making things.”
The post Warhound Seeks to Clone Enhanced Dogs for the Military appeared first on LAmag.
