The Osama bin Laden raid: a Canadian connection

Of all the Navy SEALs involved in the May 1 Osama bin Laden raid, only one has so far been named publicly: Cairo, a specially-trained military dog.

And Cairo’s equipment and body armour, it turns out, was supplied by a Canadian company.

Based in Winnipeg, K9 Storm is a privately-owned company which manufactures canine body armour for use by law enforcement agencies and the military.

Last year, the British online tech journal The Register reported that the American Navy SEAL program bought four canine vests from K9 Storm, at a cost of US$86,000.

Although details are still classified, Cairo likely wore a variant of K9 Storm’s top-of-the line Intruder vest, which features an integrated night-vision camera , communications equipment, and a bullet-resistant Kevlar core capable of stopping a 9mm or .45 caliber round.

During the mission, Cairo was flown into Pakistan in one of the SEAL team’s Pave Hawk helicopters, and then fast-roped into bin Laden’s compound attached to one of the two dozen Navy SEALs who made the assault.

A Belgian Malinois, Cairo is specially trained to sniff out explosives and alert his human team members to hidden dangers.

On May 6, U.S. President Obama met with the SEAL team—including Cairo—which carried out the mission, and awarded them with a Presidential Unit Citation, the highest possible award for a combat unit.