A feature on the Navy Times gives additional proof to the saying that dogs are man’s best friend. Aside from protecting their adoptive families as guard dogs, or leading their blind masters, or helping rescue workers find survivors in rubble, dogs also give valuable service in the battlefields of Afghanistan.

A Labrador retriever, according to the feature, can also serve the same purpose as high-tech devices in finding makeshift explosives and preventing them from exploding. Improvised explosive devices are the number 1 killer of troops in Afghanistan.

Undersecretary of Defense for acquisition Ashton Carter shared: “We have really come to understand and appreciate homemade-explosive smelling dogs. As the person who buys aircraft and submarines and tanks, I am now learning how to acquire dogs.”

Is this some sort of regression, though, since in recent times the military has sought to mechanize warfare and removed animals from the battlefield? One can recall that there was a time that mules and horses were indispensable to soldiers, but they have long since been replaced by tanks and trucks.

Not necessarily, according to Peter Singer, director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution. He said: “As we grow to understand technology and its limitations, we’re seeing the reintroduction of animals into war. We’ve discovered again that their sensor capability is much better than our technology.”

For the Marines, Labs are their best friends. They can range off leash and roam the fields in search of explosives. The Labs are trained to detect nine scents associated with bombs. A statement from Marine headquarters for its Afghan forces shared that the deployed dogs “increase the confidence of… units.”

And what happens when these soldier-dogs retire? Their handlers are given priority in adopting them, but there are a lot more waiting in line to take them into their homes and families.