Anduril founder creates start-up to clone military dogs for army
Warhound has raised $200 million and plans to clone top service dogs and edit their genes for the military. Anduril will be engaged in armor protection and technologies for animals. The program was described as “Captain America for Dogs.”
Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey and entrepreneur Ben Lamm have unveiled a startup called Warhound that plans to breed “genetically improved” service dogs for the military. This is reported by the Financial Times (FT) with reference to the statement of the new company and comments of project participants.
The Texas startup has already raised $200 million from investors, the paper said. According to the interlocutor of the FT, familiar with the deal, the valuation of Warhound, taking into account attracted funds, amounted to $ 1.2 billion.
Lamm said he came up with the project with Lucky a year and a half ago. He called it "Captain America's Dog Program" to address the welfare concerns of these animals at the same time.
Warhound intends to use technology from Lamma Colossal Biosciences to clone and edit the genes of service dogs. According to him, this will improve their working qualities and health. Now many animals do not complete training, said the entrepreneur.
Our idea is to take the best dogs, store their biomaterial in a biobank and clone them. <...> Beyond cloning dogs, can their genes be edited to improve life expectancy and performance? It's more useful for a dog and a firefighter, a police officer or a service member, said Lamm, who will join Warhound's board of directors.
Anduril will develop armor and “cybernetics” for animals to improve their capabilities. Warhound said that the technological equipment should help dogs navigate the battlefield environment, reports the FT.
“Man’s best friend deserves the best human technology,” Luckey said. At the same time, he will not receive a stake in Warhound and will not be engaged in the day-to-day management of the company.
The startup will be led by David Speark, a former U.S. Marine, the Pentagon’s first director of data and a former senior adviser to Palantir Technologies. He said his job at Warhound would allow him to help protect the people and animals that support them.
The company expects to breed service dogs in the United States. As the FT notes, most of these animals now come from European breeders.
Anduril is developing autonomous military systems, including drones and underwater vehicles. In June 2025, the company and the German Rheinmetall announced cooperation on the European versions of the Barracuda and Fury devices. The latter is designed for joint work with manned aviation. The partners also agreed to explore the production of solid-fuel rocket engines for the European market.
Another project of Anduril is a large autonomous underwater vehicle Ghost Shark for Australia. In September 2025, the Australian authorities announced a contract for 1.7 billion Australian dollars for the development and production of such devices.
Colossal Biosciences, Lamma's company, is engaged in cloning, species conservation and genetic technologies, with which he hopes to recreate the features of extinct animals. In March 2025, the company introduced genetically modified mice with long hair. This experiment became part of her program aimed at creating animals with signs of woolly mammoths.
