Anduril’s Palmer Luckey launches genetically-engineered ‘war dogs’ startup
Texas-based startup Warhound has unveiled a $1.2 billion venture to clone and genetically engineer dogs for the American military, backed by the CIA and biotech billionaire Ben Lamm.
The startup, co-founded by Anduril CEO Palmer Luckey and biotech entrepreneur Ben Lamm, announced $200 million in funding on Thursday. Warhound will be led by David Spirk, the Pentagon's former chief data officer and a senior adviser at Palantir, a major defense-tech company. The venture's backers include In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture capital firm.
Genetic modifications
Warhound plans to clone top-performing military dogs and edit their genes to improve endurance, physical abilities, and sense of smell. The company claims these modifications could eliminate inherited health problems common in working dogs, including hip dysplasia and muscle degeneration.
This is the sci-fi future we were promised.
Market challenges
Despite its billion-dollar valuation, Warhound has yet to secure a customer or determine pricing. The company plans to outfit the dogs with advanced body armor and sensors linked to Anduril's battlefield awareness system, which remains in prototype stages. Luckey and Lamm are considering a subscription model where the Pentagon would pay for a continuous supply of trained animals.
The US military currently relies heavily on imported dogs, with over 80% coming from Europe and fewer than half passing selection and training. China began experimenting with cloning animals for police work in 2019, creating Kunxun, a cloned police dog.
Ethical concerns
The push to engineer military animals raises ethical and welfare concerns. Animal cloning has been linked to pregnancy complications, developmental abnormalities, and health problems in newborns. The US Food and Drug Administration has documented such risks in livestock cloning, though healthy clones that survive their first weeks generally develop normally.
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