Moscow has deployed trained dolphins at its naval base in the Black Sea, possibly to protect its fleet from underwater attacks, according to a recent analysis of satellite images whose findings are published by the Guardian.
As the British newspaper's report points out, the US Naval Institute (USNI) examined satellite images taken at the naval base in the port of Sevastopol, and concluded that two dolphin enclosures were moved there in February, when the Russian "military operation" in Ukraine was beginning.
Russia has a history of training dolphins for military purposes, and of using the intelligent mammals to retrieve objects and deter enemy divers.
The Sevastopol naval base is extremely important to the Russian military, as it is located at the southernmost tip of Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014. According to USNI analysis, many of the Russian ships anchored there, while out of missile range, are likely vulnerable to underwater attacks, according to USNI analysis.
It is worth noting that Ukraine also previously trained dolphins at an aquarium near Sevastopol, as part of a program that began in Soviet times and fell by the wayside in the 1990s.
During the Cold War, both the Soviet Union and the United States developed dolphin training techniques, focusing largely on their echolocation abilities, which allow them to detect objects such as submarine mines. The US has spent at least $28 million to maintain an "army" of dolphins and sea lions that can also be trained - with the aim of using them in conflict.
The Ukrainian Navy attempted to revive the Sevastopol program in 2012, but the mammals fell into Russian hands after the invasion of Crimea in 2014. Kiev then demanded the return of the dolphins, but to no response, and Ria Novosti reported at the time that Moscow was planning to expand the program.
"Our experts have developed new devices that convert the underwater echolocation of dolphin targets into signals displayed on the operator's monitor. The Ukrainian Navy did not have the required resources for such technology and some projects had to be put on ice," a source told the Russian agency. Two years later, the Russian Navy announced that it planned to buy five more dolphins, launching a bidding process for a 1.75 million ruble contract that would include delivery of the dolphins to Sevastopol by the end of the summer. It is not clear whether the dolphins believed to be currently in Sevastopol are the same ones the Russian Navy procured through that contract.
Satellite images from 2018 had revealed that Russia had also used dolphins at its naval base in Tartus during the war in Syria.
Source: Proto Thema
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