According to a public "intelligence update," the Russian Navy is "likely" training combat dolphins to intercept enemy divers.
The astounding disclosure includes satellite images of what seem to be marine animal prisons and a Russian navy installation near Sevastopol port in Crimea.
“Russia has trained animals for a range of missions, but the ones housed in Sevastopol harbor are highly likely intended to counter enemy divers,” the statement said.
In the satellite images, nets, booms, and barges were positioned at the naval base's entrance.
“Since summer 2022, the Russian Navy has invested in major enhancements to the security of the Black Sea Fleet’s main base at Sevastopol,” the BMD wrote on Twitter. “In recent weeks, these defenses have highly likely also been augmented by an increased number of trained marine mammals.”
The Sevastopol base of Russia, which is home to many significant Russian vessels, is a possible target for sabotage by the Ukrainians.
Despite the naval base's distance from Ukrainian missiles, Ukrainian drones targeted it in April, setting fire to a Crimean oil store and destroying three "unmanned boats," according to the Russian defense ministry.
The U.S. Naval Institute (USNI), which published pictures of two floating dolphin cages in April, had earlier announced the existence of trained dolphins in Sevastopol. Additional pens may be seen in the current pictures in the water close to the base's entrance.
“In the Arctic north, Russia’s Northern Fleet uses different types of marine mammals. Beluga whales and seals, both with heavy layers of fat to keep warm, are better protected against the cold than the bottlenose dolphins used in the Black Sea,” the USNI reported at the time.
Since 1959, the U.S. Navy has been teaching dolphins and sea lions. The Navy's Marine Mammal Program started a year later, and at first it taught a wide range of marine creatures, including as sharks, beluga whales, sea turtles, rays, and even marine birds
The Navy now relies on sea lions and bottlenose dolphins, two species chosen for their trainability and flexibility.
The Marine Mammal Program teaches the creatures how to carry equipment to divers underwater, find and retrieve lost items, watch over vessels and submarines, and use cameras to conduct underwater surveillance.
According to the Naval Information Warfare Center, bottlenose dolphins have the most advanced natural echolocation senses known to man, surpassing the capabilities of electronic sonar. This gives them superior undersea target detection and tracking abilities in addition to their remarkable low-light eyesight, such as enemy divers.
The United States fought in the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars. According to a PBS program called "A Whale of Business," the Navy employed bottlenose dolphins to tag enemy divers with tracking devices and even allegedly taught the dolphins to kill enemy swimmers.
A beluga whale with a camera on it, most likely from the Russian military, was spotted in 2021 off the coast of Norway.
