The USNI (United States Naval Institute) has reported that the Russian navy is using real dolphins and deploying them to protect naval ships in the Black Sea harbour of Sevastopol.
Satellite images reviewed and analysed by the USNI reveal the Russian Army is using dolphins to protect its naval base in Sevastopol from underwater attacks.
It showed that two dolphin pens were placed in the harbour of Russia's most significant Black Sea naval base in Sevastopol.
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Russia and the U.S. military use trained military dolphins and other animals in its activities.
The military has been using animals for military purposes and the practice is more common than expected, with the use of animals dating back thousands of years.
The US Naval institute reviewed satellite imagery that showed the Russian navy had moved Dolphin Pens at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union maintained a military dolphin training facility in Sevastopol.
Sevastopol is the largest city in the Crimean peninsula.
Dolphins are highly intelligent and are often used to detect explosives in dark waters, where they can be missed by electronic sonar.
In this scenario, the dolphins would likely detect a swimmer and then raise the alarm with their human handlers.
According to Live Science, Dolphins can communicate through high-pitched whistles, they also sense objects and determine distances through echolocation — sending out high-frequency clicks that bounce back off objects, revealing their proximity to the dolphin.
The Soviet program reportedly produced dolphins that were trained to attack with mounted harpoons, as well as “kamikaze dolphins” strapped with explosives that could bomb enemy ships in military strikes.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, part of the military program was transferred to Ukraine.
The USNI reports that in the following decades the program “barely stayed open,” and closed in 2000 when the dolphins were sold to Iran, only to be resurrected in 2012.
When Russia annexed Crimea, it took control of the dolphins that were in the Crimean peninsula, but most of them died.
USNI reports that Russia’s program now includes a Black Sea dolphin unit and an Arctic program run by a Russian intelligence agency that uses seals and beluga whales.
In 2019, a fisherman spotted a beluga whale called Hvaldimir off the coast of Norway equipped with a harness suitable for a weapon or a GoPro camera, and was dubbed a Russian Naval Spy.
In terms of the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program, it has been active since 1959.
Unlike the Russian program, the US Navy openly states that dolphins and sea lions are used in a support capacity.
After several trials, the US Navy began to use bottlenose dolphins to detect underwater mines, recover equipment and even alert sailors to underwater saboteurs.
The US Navy also realized that they could find out how to improve the speed of their boats and submarines by studying how dolphins can swim fast and dive deep.
It’s not unheard of to use animals for military purposes.
Humanity began to domesticate animals about 15,000 years ago, and since then we have used them for a wide variety of purposes, including war.
Dolphins were used in both the Vietnam war, as well as the Persian Gulf war.
Animals such as horses, pigeons, and elephants, have been used as cavalry, as a means of transporting supplies or carrying messages.
Pigeons were often used to carry messages of vital military importance and saved many lives in the process.
In fact, 32 pigeons have even received the Dickin Medal.
The most recent winner was a German shorthaired pointer named Hertz, who was awarded his prize for his ability to protect British and coalition forces in Afghanistan by detecting drugs and electronics.
Elephants were known for wreaking havoc on front lines.
Over 2000 years ago, the Carthaginian general Hannibal even led 37 war elephants across the Alps to attack Rome.
US Navy reportedly even spent over $90 million and found that dolphins were still better at detecting explosives than robots.
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