The founders of Colossal Biosciences and Anduril, Ben Lamm and Palmer Luckey, have teamed up for a new venture called Warhound. Like the name suggests, the idea is to bring new technology to the field of dogs used for war. The new company has already raised $200 million to get started.
On Thursday, a joint venture between Dallas' Colossal Biosciences and defense technology company Anduril announced its emergence from stealth. The startup is called Warhound, and its pitch is that with Colossal's genetic engineering capabilities and Anduril's cybernetic augments, it can create a new generation of working military dogs better suited to, and better protected from, today's advanced battlefields.
Warhound, which will based in Dallas, raised $200 million in its seed round led by Sequoia Capital. The release describes Warhound as a "vertically integrated platform, combining Colossal’s enhanced genetics platform and secure biobanking capabilities of America's top-performing dog arsenal, controlled delivery through cloning with best-in-class training and animal care." The dogs will then be outfitted with ear and eye protection from Anduril, as well as connected with Anduril's AI and augmented reality Eagle Eye headgear technology, to enable dogs and their handlers better situational awareness in the field.
The U.S. doesn't have a lot of war dogs but it does have at least 1,600 according to this Department of War page. Most of the dogs come from overseas breeders but about 13 percent are born here in Texas.
The dogs are socialized for several months and at one year they begin basic dog training. At one year they are then evaluated for inclusion into a military training program. These programs are intensive and involve daily training like a full-time job. The Army put together this video showing what the trainers do on an average day.
Obviously, not every dog makes it into the training and not every dog who starts the training completes it. Part of what Warhound wants to do is bring the breeding here to the U.S. and also ensure that more of the dogs bred for this program are healthy and fit for purpose.
In its launch announcement, the company said that more than 80% of the working dogs used by the U.S. military come from Europe and less than half of them are fit for service.
So not only is there a dwindling supply of working dogs for these tasks, but the U.S. has also become increasingly reliant on foreign nations for dogs that play an important role in the U.S. military and in law enforcement. That is key for what Warhound is trying to do. The hope is that Colossal can use its technology to engineer dogs with “characteristics suited to demanding missions,” the company said in a press release.
Lamm told TechCrunch he met Luckey about a year ago at a conference, where the Anduril co-founder brought up doing more for working dogs in the U.S. military. The two kept in touch, and Lamm did more research, learning about the breeding issues. Many dogs do not make it through training because of genetic dispositions for issues like poor eyesight or the high possibilities of cancer, hip dysplasia, or muscle atrophy.
Anduril's role in this partnership will be to provide more advanced technology to keep the dogs safe and also to give their handlers a live view of what they are encountering.
Andruil, meanwhile, will provide software and hardware enhancement for items such as dog protection vests and eye goggles to assist the dogs and their handlers with matters like situational awareness and coordination.
He said to imagine, for example, bulletproof vests that have data sensors that give 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 aim to make the dogs safer and healthier outside of their genetic components, “on top of the dog, not in the dog.” He believes such enhancements will also protect the dogs’ human handlers better.
It sounds like a good project that could make for dogs that will be even better at doing their jobs for the military.