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Dolphins are trained to patrol in open waters and attack or signal targets of military interest.
Russia has deployed military dolphins trained at its naval base Black Sea to protect its fleet, according to a new analysis of satellite images.
The US Naval Institute (USNI) has examined satellite images of the naval base in the port of Sevastopol, on the Crimean peninsula, and concludes that two dolphin pens were moved to the base in February, around the time of the Ukraine invasion.
Russian authorities have been pushing for years the dolphin and sea lion training program for military purposes in the facilities built for that purpose in the port of Sevastopol, on the Ukrainian Crimea annexed by Russia, an initiative that dates back to the 1960s.
Dolphins are trained to patrol in open waters and attack or signal targets of military interest such as mines placed on the seabed or combating incursions by divers. Conventional sonar systems are not equipped to detect the presence of these animals.
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The program was created during Cold War and focused on the Sebastopol Oceanarium, then in the Soviet Union. The United States has similar facilities at the port of San Diego, California) also designed to train dolphins for military purposes.
With the end of the Cold War, the Oceanarium became the responsibility of Ukraine, which redirected it for civil purposes such as therapy with disabled children. Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, he reoriented himself towards his original military purpose.