Also, not owls, but the US did try to use bats for warfare in Project X-Ray as an alternative to the Manhattan Project (CW, awful animal cruelty): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb
spoiler
Von Bloeker, his assistant, Jack Couffer, and Ozro Wiswell, a scientist, self-described “bat lovers”,[4]: 8 noted that it did not occur to them to question the “morality or the ecological consequences of sacrificing a few million bats”.[4]: 9
…
In one incident, the Carlsbad Army Airfield Auxiliary Air Base (32°15′39″N 104°13′45″W) near Carlsbad, New Mexico, was set on fire on 15 May 1943, when armed bats were accidentally released.[9] The bats roosted under a fuel tank and incinerated the test range.
Also, not owls, but the US did try to use bats for warfare in Project X-Ray as an alternative to the Manhattan Project (CW, awful animal cruelty): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb
spoiler
Von Bloeker, his assistant, Jack Couffer, and Ozro Wiswell, a scientist, self-described “bat lovers”,[4]: 8 noted that it did not occur to them to question the “morality or the ecological consequences of sacrificing a few million bats”.[4]: 9
…
In one incident, the Carlsbad Army Airfield Auxiliary Air Base (32°15′39″N 104°13′45″W) near Carlsbad, New Mexico, was set on fire on 15 May 1943, when armed bats were accidentally released.[9] The bats roosted under a fuel tank and incinerated the test range.