By Tom Vanden Brook for USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Marines in Afghanistan want to more than double the number of bomb-sniffing dogs at their disposal in the battle against record-setting attacks by insurgents using makeshift explosives.
Marines in the heart of the Taliban stronghold in the southern part of the country have asked to boost the number of Labrador retrievers from 300 to 647, according to 1st Lt. Joshua Diddams, a Marines spokesman.
“We want as many as we can get,” Diddams said.
The new dogs will allow downtime at home for the veteran canines, some of them dragging tail after their fifth or even sixth deployment. The dogs come back “thinner, just like Marines” after a six- or seven-month combat tour, said Doug Miller, the Pentagon’s program manager for “working dogs.”
Stateside, trainers will sharpen the Labs’ bomb-sniffing skills and “fatten ’em up,” Miller said.
The Pentagon has invested billions to protect troops from improvised explosive devices (IEDs). It has spent $40 billion on Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) trucks, and billions more on devices to jam signals that trigger roadside bombs and drones to spy on insurgents planting them.
On Monday, the Pentagon announced that it will pay as much as $34 million to a Virginia firm to supply it with IED-detector dogs and provide care for them until September 2012.
Insurgents planted 1,292 IEDs in August, down slightly from the all-time peak of 1,358 in July, according to the Pentagon.
The Labs undergo rigorous selection and training, just like their human counterparts, Miller said. In the end, the military is looking for a few good dogs.
Trainers will look at 400 dogs, buy 200 of them and settle on 100 that are suitable for training, Miller said.
They work with the Labs for four months, training them to detect the scents found in homemade explosives and other elements in IEDs.
Dogs that achieve certification as bomb sniffers will ship out to Marine units for training that takes several more weeks. Then it’s off to war.
The Labs have been performing well in the field, Miller said, hence the Marines request for more. Some dogs have been killed by IEDs, he said, though none of their handlers have died.
Other dogs become terrified by war — “a few cases of canine PTSD,” Miller said, referring to post-traumatic stress disorder.
They’re sent home for adoption.