The Pentagon is developing a radical plan to breed gentically modified life forms to hunt for enemy subs.

A newly revealed project hopes to create 'living tripwires' that could give early warning to Navy commanders.

The Naval Research Laboratory, or NRL, would be able to tune the microorganisms to hunt for a variety of giveaway signals, from diesel fuel to human DNA from stealth divers.

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A newly revealed project hopes to create 'living tripwires' that could give early warning to Navy commanders.. Pictured, a dolphin jumps in front of the Virginia-class attack submarine USS John Warner

HOW 'LIVING TRIPWIRES' WORK The Naval Research Laboratory, or NRL, would be able to tune the microorganisms before releasing them. The could hunt for a variety of giveaway signals, from diesel fuel to human DNA from stealth divers. Once they come into contact with the trigger material, it would cause a loss of electrons, which could be detectable to friendly sub drones patrolling the area Advertisement

According to Defence One, coming into contact with the trigger material would cause a loss of electrons, which could be detectable to friendly sub drones.

'In an engineered context, we might take the ability of the microbes to give up electrons, then use [those electrons] to talk to something like an autonomous vehicle,' NRL researcher Sarah Glaven said at a November event put on by the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Lab.

Glaven said she believes the research is about a year away from providing concrete evidence that she can engineer reactions in abundant marine life forms that could prove useful for the military.

Researchers are targetting abundant sea organisms, like Marinobacter, for the project.

Sub-hunting, in particular, is 'what we would like it to be applicable for,' she said.

Several projects across the Army, Navy and Air Force, are part of the $45 million effort known as the 'Applied Research for the Advancement of Science and Technology Priorities Program on Synthetic Biology for Military Environments' designed to genetically engineer creatures for warfare.

The Naval Research Laboratory, or NRL, would be able to tune the microorganisms before releasing them.

If researchers can perfect the technology, it could lead to everything from living camouflage that reacts to its surroundings to better avoid detection, to radical new drugs.

Last year a team of scientists from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed and demonstrated a pioneering synthetic biology tool to deliver DNA programming into a broad range of bacteria.

This research was published in the journal Nature Microbiology, and was featured as the cover of the September 2018 issue.

'Much of the current work in synthetic biology has used a small number of domesticated microbes, including E. coli or yeast,' said Dr. Bryn Adams of ARL's Biotechnology Branch.

'Unlocking genetic access to undomesticated microbes has been a major barrier to military adoption of synthetic biology products.'

Adams further explained that there is a need for broadly applicable synthetic biology tools that allow access to a wide range of microorganisms, including the most fundamental step of genetic engineering - the ability to transfer DNA into a cell.

The team's novel approach to address this problem uses an engineered Bacillus subtilis bacterium, termed XPORT, to deliver DNA in a highly precise and controlled fashion to a wide variety of bacteria.

MIT professor and corresponding author Dr. Christopher Voigt said, 'Every Soldier, vehicle and weapon system is coated with living bacteria.

'We are looking forward to understanding how these bacteria change depending on the theater, now having the ability to control them for sustained optimal performance.'

'Our team is looking at ways we can reprogram cells that already exist in the environment to create environmentally friendly platforms for generating molecules and materials beneficial for defense needs,' said Dr. Claretta Sullivan, a research scientist at the Air Force Research Laboratory's Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, who is also the Tri-Service Program Manager for SBME, when the project was announced.