$19 Billion Later, Pentagon’s Best Bomb-Detector Is a Dog!!

[KansasVoter]

Drones, metal detectors, chemical sniffers, and super spycams — forget ‘em. The leader of the Pentagon’s multibillion military task force to stop improvised bombs says there’s nothing in the U.S. arsenal for bomb detection more powerful than a dog’s nose.

Despite a slew of bomb-finding gagdets, the American military only locates about 50 percent of the improvised explosives planted in Afghanistan and Iraq. But that number jumps to 80 percent when U.S. and Afghan patrols take dogs along for a sniff-heavy walk. “Dogs are the best detectors,” Lieutenant General Michael Oates, the commander of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, told a conference yesterday, National Defense reports. That’s not the greatest admission for a well-funded organization — nearly $19 billion since 2004, according to a congressional committee — tasked with solving one of the military’s wickedest problems.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/10/19-billion-later-pentagon-best-bomb-detector-is-a-dog/

[demosincebirth]

1. I knew my dog was good for something!

[sailor65]

2. Dogs are WIN, period....

Earth's best and most versatile four-legged creature by far!

[mainer]

3. Best cadaver sniffers, too. And trackers.

We still can't build a contraption that can match the sensitivity and specificity of a dog's nose.

Plus they need minimal maintenance (dog food and strokes) and they last a good eight years.