Navy Seal Dogs

 

The commando team that killed Osama bin Laden, showed only one of the 81 members of the super-secret SEAL DevGru unit was identified by name: Cairo , the war dog.  Cairo, like most canine members of the elite U.S. Navy SEALs, is a Belgian Malinois.

The Malinois breed is similar to German shepherds but smaller and more compact, with an adult male weighing in the 30-kilo range. 

German shepherds are still used as war dogs by the American military but, the lighter, stubbier Malinois is considered better for the tandem parachute jumping and rappelling operations often undertaken by SEAL teams.

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Like their human counterparts, the dog SEALs are highly trained, highly skilled, highly motivated special ops experts, able to perform extraordinary military missions by Sea, Air and Land (thus the acronym).

The dogs carry out a wide range of specialized duties for the military teams to which they are attached.  With a sense of smell 40 times greater than a human’s, the dogs are trained to detect and identify both explosive material and hostile or hiding humans.  The dogs are twice as fast as a fit human,

so anyone trying to escape is not likely to outrun Cairo or his buddies.

 

The dogs, equipped with video cameras, also enter certain danger zones first, allowing their handlers to see what’s ahead before humans follow.  SEAL dogs are even trained parachutists, jumping either in tandem with their handlers or solo, if the jump is into water.

Last year canine parachute instructor Mike Forsythe and his dog Cara set the world record for highest man-dog parachute deployment, jumping from more than 30,100 feet up — the altitude transoceanic passenger jets fly at.

Both Forsythe and Cara were wearing oxygen masks and skin protectors

for the jump.

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As well, the dogs are faithful, fearless and ferocious — incredibly frightening and efficient attackers.  It's reported repeatedly that the teeth of SEAL war dogs are replaced with titanium implants that are stronger, sharper and scare-your-pants-off intimidating, but a U.S. Military spokesman has denied that charge.

When the SEAL DevGru team (usually known by its old designation, Team 6) hit Bin Laden’s Pakistan compoundon May 2, Cairo’s feet would have been four of the first on the ground.  And like the human SEALs, Cairo was wearing super-strong, flexible body Armor and outfitted with high-tech equipment that included “doggles” — specially designed and fitted dog googles with night-vision and infrared capability that would even allow

Cairo to see human heat forms through concrete walls.

 

Just as the Navy SEALS and other elite special forces are the sharp point of the American military machine, so too are their dogs at the top of a canine military hierarchy.  In all, the U.S. military currently has about 2,800 active-duty dogs deployed around the world, with roughly 600 now in Afghanistan and Iraq .