Oketz combat dogs carrying battlefield cameras, sensors, protective vests and communication devices – the IDF is finding new ways to explore dangerous buildings and underground tunnels before sending soldiers inside.
By Hezy Laing
For 85 years, the IDF’s Oketz Unit – Unit 7142 – has sent four legs in where two legs can’t safely go. What has changed is what those four legs are carrying. Oketz, which means “sting” in Hebrew, is now less about just teeth and nose and more about sensors, streams, and data.
The GoPro dog
The most visible upgrade is the head-mounted and body-mounted tactical camera. In Gaza, the IDF has released dozens of videos showing exactly what the dog sees as it trots through tunnels, houses, and rubble.
For the handler outside, that is live intel. The dog enters a dark tunnel shaft first, streams HD video back, and locates munitions, doors, or terrorists before a soldier has to expose himself.
In one clip released in August 2026, an Oketz dog with a camera on its harness found dozens of rockets inside a tunnel complex in southern Gaza, leading engineers to destroy it without casualties.
The smart harness
The old leather harness is gone. The new system is a modular tactical vest that includes:
- Two-way audio: The handler can give commands remotely from 100+ meters away
- Environmental sensors: Gas, heat, and oxygen levels for tunnel work
- GPS UWB tracking: Precise location underground where GPS fails
- Protective armor: Lightweight ballistic vest that still lets the dog run
The unit itself describes it as “advanced canine gear, including specialized harnesses, protective vests, and communication devices”.
Why now?
Two reasons: tunnels and casualties.
Tunnels are low, dark, narrow, and full of traps – perfect for a 30-kilo dog and terrible for a 90-kilo soldier with gear. A dog can also smell explosives and humans long before a drone can see them. And the cost has been high. The unit has lost 42 dogs since the start of the war in Gaza, each one buried with military honors. Tech is partly about giving those dogs a better chance to survive and to make their sacrifice count for more intel.
Robotic solutions?
With all this tech why not just use a robotic dog? A trained Oketz dog has an extraordinary sense of smell and can detect explosives and other substances that cameras and others sensors cannot identify. A camera can show a handler what lies ahead, but it cannot reproduce a dog’s ability to detect certain threats through smell.
Artificial intelligence: the next frontier
The next stage of development could involve artificial intelligence helping military teams interpret the information gathered by both biological and mechanical scouts.
Software could eventually identify unusual sounds in camera recordings, highlight suspicious objects in images or combine information from several sensors to produce a clearer picture of an unfamiliar building. Such tools could help commanders and soldiers make faster decisions in complex environments.
The dogs serve 6-8 years, their handlers 3-4 years, forming a bond that the unit says has “no human or technological substitute.” But now, that bond comes with a livestream, a sensor package, and a tactical network.
The nose still leads. The tech just makes sure everyone else sees what the nose already knows.
