Warhound, a new American start-up founded by Anduril cofounder Palmer Luckey and Ben Lamm, who leads Colossal Biosciences—a biotechnology company aiming to resurrect extinct species like the woolly mammoth—has secured $200 million in funding to clone and genetically modify so‑called “war dogs” intended for the U.S. military and law enforcement.
- The company will be led by David Spirk, a Marine veteran, former chief data officer of the Pentagon and adviser at Palantir, the surveillance company co‑founded by Peter Thiel.
- Warhound claims to be “certified by the American Humane Society,” a U.S. organization dedicated to animal welfare, and says it will, in time, help limit the number of dogs subjected to unnecessary intensive training.
- In February, the Pentagon’s inspector general flagged in a report the poor housing conditions of military dogs in kennels at twelve bases nationwide, linked to the deaths of four of them between 2021 and 2023.
The creation of Warhound rests on an observation: more than 80% of American military dogs are imported from Europe, according to the company, and fewer than half are deemed fit for service. Yet these animals are still used at scale for explosive-detection, search, or other tasks deemed too dangerous for humans or too difficult for machines.
- Warhound therefore plans to select the most capable dogs, preserve their cells in a biobank, and clone them.
- Their genes will then be edited to increase their longevity and to improve their health and performance.
- On its site, the Texas-based start-up boasts “a new breed of domination… built for victory.”
Luckey had already discussed in 2023 the possibility of genetically modifying dogs to meet military needs.
- In an episode of a podcast featuring, among others, Jacob Helberg, named Deputy Secretary of State for Economic Affairs by Trump in January 2025, Luckey stated: “Do you think 70-kilogram German Shepherds make good canine units? And direwolves (direwolves) weighing 270 kilograms that wear 70 kilograms of armor? … They’re extinct for the moment, but they don’t have to stay that way.”
In addition to altering the dogs’ genetic makeup to make them more capable and resilient, Warhound says it intends to equip them with cutting-edge technologies produced by Anduril to give them a “battlefield situational awareness.” Ben Lamm summarizes it as a “Captain America program for dogs.”