Anduril’s Palmer Luckey launches genetically-engineered ‘war dogs’ startup

Anduril Industries CEO Palmer Luckey is working to clone and genetically engineer dogs for the American military, in a venture backed by the CIA and a biotech billionaire who plans on resurrecting prehistoric creatures.Texas-based startup Warhound unveiled the project on Thursday, announcing $200 million in funding and a $1.2 billion valuation. The venture brings together Luckey, a major player in the burgeoning defense-tech sector, and Ben Lamm, whose biotechnology company has promised to revive the long-extinct wooly mammoth.Warhound will be headed by David Spirk, the Pentagon’s first chief data officer and a former senior adviser at Palantir, a major US defense-tech company supplying AI and data analytics software to military and intelligence agencies. Its backers include In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s in-house venture capital firm and one of Palantir’s first investors. The startup plans to clone top-performing military dogs and edit their genes to improve endurance, physical abilities, and sense of smell. It also claims the modifications could eliminate inherited health problems, including hip dysplasia and muscle degeneration.“This is the sci-fi future we were promised,” Lamm said, descr...