# What are some other wacky military ideas that never made it?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 27, 2005, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911 "2005-08-27T22:28:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/101 "2019-01-04T20:35:21Z")

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> [@Gray\_Ghost](#):
>
> I’ve not seen the show, and I don’t know if it was covered upthread, but in another animal-related bizarre ‘military idea’, the CIA tried to surgically implant a microphone, radio transmitter, and power supply in a house cat. [The CIA implanted microphones into the skin of CATS | Daily Mail Online](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4455714/The-CIA-implanted-microphones-skin-CATS.html)
> 
> I don’t believe it worked.

I read an article years ago (at least ten years back, possibly as much as 20) in the Philadelphia Inquirer (the local paper of note) about attempts to bug with bugs. Researchers attached tiny cameras and microphones to cockroaches. The idea was to sever the roaches antennae and use attached electrodes to guide them instead. It was a brilliant idea. Roaches can get into almost anywhere. They are very hard to find and kill. Even if you see a roach, your first thought is not “It’s an enemy surveillance device!”. Unfortunately, they were unable to really control the roaches’ movement.

Oh, this idea also pops up in The Fifth Element. The bad guys use a bugged roach. It is seen and squashed.

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**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/102 "2019-01-04T21:08:35Z")

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There was the [Camel Corps](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Camel_Corps), a mid-19th century Army experiment testing the performance of camels as pack animals vs mules in the American Southwest. Unsurprisingly, the camels performed well, but the program was abandoned, partly because of the “mule lobby,” but probably mostly because of the outbreak of the Civil War.

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