21st CENTURY HEADLINES: Anduril and Colossal Team Up for Warhound.

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.

For those familiar with the early 1980s-era RPG Traveller, you’ll know that the Vargr had to start somewhere.