---
title: A Startup Conceived by Palmer Luckey and Ben Lamm Plans to Clone and Gene-Edit US Military Working Dogs
description: Warhound, conceived by Palmer Luckey and Ben Lamm, raised $200 million to clone and gene-edit proven dogs as the US military buys most of its dogs from Europe.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-10-26T13:20:32.727Z
updated: 2026-10-26T13:20:32.740Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/warhound-cloned-military-working-dogs-luckey-lamm
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/air-force-military-working-dog-training-479054.webp
categories: Startups
content_type: News
region: United States
publication: Sovereign Magazine
schema_type: Article
---

Warhound, a defense technology company conceived by Colossal Biosciences co-founder and chief executive Ben Lamm and [Anduril founder Palmer Luckey](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/how-a-seven-year-old-startup-just-landed-a-1-1b-defense-contract-that-could-reshape-military-), came out of stealth on Oct. 22 with a $200 million seed round that values it at $1.2 billion, TechCrunch reported. It plans to supply the US military with working dogs cloned from proven animals, screened for inherited disease and gene-edited, giving the Pentagon, police forces and emergency responders a domestic source for dogs the military now buys mostly from European breeders.

The investors include In-Q-Tel, Sequoia Capital, ARK Invest, Franklin Templeton, 8VC, Corner Ventures, Lux Capital, Breyer Capital and Builders VC. The chief executive is David Spirk, a Marine Corps veteran and former intelligence specialist who was the first chief data officer of both the Department of War and US Special Operations Command, and later a senior counselor at Palantir.

## More Than 80% of US Military Working Dogs Come From Europe, According to Warhound

The Department of War's Military Working Dog Program has more than 2,200 dog teams, and more than 80% of US military working dogs are bought in Europe, according to the company. Warhound says fewer than half of the dogs the military buys are judged fit for service after a roughly three-year acquisition and training pipeline, so the US has to buy and train about 200 dogs to field 100.

Lamm told Fortune the US is "competing against other country governments" for the same animals, China and Russia among them. In the company's launch announcement he said "we're still relying on outdated approaches to breeding and training these extraordinary animals, with too many never making it through the process."

The Air Force bought 427 dogs in 2019, and 407 of them were born overseas, mostly in Europe, according to Air Force data reported by Navy Times. A Senate Armed Services Committee report said that "due to the finite number of breeders overseas, as well as rising market demand, the cost for the Air Force and other agencies to procure whelped military working dogs from Europe is skyrocketing." A 157-page report cited in a 2021 Navy Times commentary found that of the roughly 5,000 working dogs kept by the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice and State, "only 7 percent are bred domestically, and the rest are imported from Europe."

## US Agencies Have Started and Shut Down at Least Four Dog Breeding Programs Since 1968

Since 1968, US government agencies have launched and then shut down at least four breeding programs, each running for about a decade before its funding was cut, according to the American Kennel Club. The Transportation Security Administration ended its breeding program in 2012 for lack of funding. A 2012 Defense Department story said the department's [Military Working Dog Breeding Program at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio](https://www.dvidshub.net/news/511485/breeding-program-turns-puppies-into-troops) aimed to produce about a third of the military's working dog requirement, about 270 dogs. Congress put $5 million in the fiscal 2022 defense authorization bill toward a pilot to expand the use of US-bred and raised explosives detection dogs, with a goal of presenting at least 250 domestically bred dogs for assessment each year.

## Warhound Plans to Clone Proven Dogs and Screen Out Genes Tied to Inherited Disease

In emailed answers to Fortune and an interview with TechCrunch, Lamm said Warhound will find top dogs that have finished training, store their cells in a biobank, clone those dogs and make targeted gene edits. Viagen, another company owned by Colossal, will do the cloning, and Lamm said its technology has a high cloning success rate. Even with cloning, he said, "training and environment will always influence performance."

Warhound will screen out known harmful variants tied to muscle degeneration and other inherited diseases, so that "no dog enters service carrying genetic markers known to cause common career-ending conditions," Lamm said. He added that the company is "planning future genetic enhancements to improve their already exceptional performance."

The first group of dogs has already been biobanked and is being edited, and the first batch is about to be cloned and incubated, with births expected early next year and service ideally beginning within two years, according to Lamm. "Breeding and raising a dog takes the time it takes," he said.

Colossal used the same tools in April 2025, when it announced the return of the dire wolf: its scientists edited about 20 sites across 14 genes in gray wolf cells, cloned three pups, Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi, from the edited cells, and had domestic dogs carry them to term. "Our warhounds are genetically modified dogs just like our dire wolves were genetically modified wolves," Lamm told Fortune.

South Korea's customs service deployed six cloned sniffer dogs in 2009, and about a decade later Chinese scientists said they had cloned a top police dog, a Kunming wolfdog named Kunxun; six cloned K-9s later joined the Beijing police, Fortune reported.

## Colossal Holds Equity in Warhound, and Anduril Will Supply Vests, Goggles and Software

Colossal owns equity in Warhound and licenses its technology to the company. Luckey is a partner in the venture but owns no equity in it, Lamm told TechCrunch.

Anduril will supply equipment including eye and ear protection, protective vests and goggles, along with software and integration with its Eagle Eye system, a package Warhound calls "cybernetic Augments." Lamm told TechCrunch the gear goes "on top of the dog, not in the dog."

## No Customer Has Signed Yet, and Warhound Is Not Quoting a Price Per Dog

Warhound has no signed customers yet and is working with canine experts across the national security community, Lamm told Fortune. The company is not quoting a price per dog, he said, because "a young dog, a partially trained dog, and a cloned dog of proven health with training and support through retirement are very different things."

Lamm said Warhound is discussing a "Canine-as-a-Service model," in which the government would buy a steady supply of trained dogs rather than individual animals. The company plans to set up national-scale kennel and training facilities step by step, "starting with private capital," and has hired what Lamm called "one of the top dog handlers ever to serve in the U.S. military" as director of canine operations. Warhound also says the technologies and therapeutics it develops will be made available to all dogs.

Find out more at [warhound.com](https://warhound.com).