Russia deploys trained military dolphins to guard key Black Sea naval bases

Russia has trained dolphins to guard the entrance of the key Black Sea port and significant Kremlin naval bases under its marine mammal programme that trains the marine animals to be experts in being able to detect enemy ships and sea mines. Militarised dolphin pens were spotted at the naval base at Sevastopol harbour in sentinel-2 satellite imagery released by the US Naval Institute (USNI) on April 27, Wednesday. 

At least two highly trained dolphin pens were deployed by the naval forces of the Russian Federation to the base in February, around the time Moscow launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine. The move was intended for the marine creatures to help protect Moscow’s key Sevastopol naval base at the southern tip of annexed Crimea where several Russian warships are anchored out of range from missiles but vulnerable to sea assault, according to a naval analyst HI Sutton.

(Image: H I Sutton Illustration for USNI News Satellite image Maxar Technologies)

(Image: H I Sutton Illustration for USNI)

The dolphins were trained by Russia under a programme that was first launched during the Soviet-era in the 1990s. The Sevastopol programme was resurrected by the Ukrainian navy in 2012 but after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, the trained dolphins were confiscated by Russian naval forces. Moscow has since planned to expand the scheme, RIA Novosti reported. 

(Satellite images of Sevastopol and the dolphin pens at the entrance to the Sevastopol BaySatellite image. Image: Maxar Technologies)

Military dolphins foe counter combat operations at Sevastopol harbor in Crimea

The images released by Maxar Technologies depict the Russian Navy’s dolphins swimming at the entrance to Sevastopol harbour in Crimea remaining alert to an enemy presence. They would counter Ukrainian navy divers that could attempt to sabotage Russian warships at the port in course of the ongoing war, submarine analyst Sutton said in the US Naval Institute report. The mammals were seen following the historic sinking of Moscow’s flagship Black Sea missile cruiser Moskva formerly Slava. 

The Russian Defence Ministry had said ammunition onboard had exploded setting the warship ablaze and subsequently tipping it over as it was being towed to the port. Ukrainian forces claimed that the 510 crew warship was struck by them using Neptune missiles as the vessel had been a military target since it attacked the Ukrainian forces on the infamous Snake Island. Moskva gained notoriety after it radioed surrender warnings to Ukrainian border troops defending Snake Island in the Black Sea. 

(A trainer touches the nose of US navy dolphin “Shasta” during a demonstration at the US Navy Marine Mammal Program facility at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego. Image: AP)

Both United States and Moscow have long weaponized and trained marine creatures such as dolphins and beluga whales for espionage and other combat operations against enemy naval forces, and defending maritime sovereignty A beluga whale named Hvaldimir was also caught spying on NATO ships in 2019 off the northeastern coast of Norway. About the same time, the Russian Navy moved some whale pens to the Olenya Guba submarine base.

The four-meter-long white cetacean was found with yellow harness attached to a clip used for mounting a camera. The buckle was later inspected and words “Equipment of St. Petersburg” were decoded. Separately, a detachment of sea lions were trained by the Russian Navy in 2018 in Murmansk Marine Biological Institute for combat missions under a programme that began in 1984. 

(Image: Murmansk marine biological institute)

(Image: Murmansk marine biological institute)

Russia also widely trains the whales for surveillance of Scandinavian waters, particularly Norway and Sweden, both of whom have reported several incidences of mock attack runs and surveillance missions conducted by the Russian military whales and dolphins. 1.75-ton beluga whales and dolphins are trained by Russian military due to their echolocation capabilities and sonar that make them useful in locating and navigating oceans using reflected sound that helps hunt and identify enemy warships.

Beluga whales can dive up to 700 meters deep, much deeper than military submarines. They also carry out counter-diver operations, detect underwater objects and infiltrating espionage objects due to high levels of intelligence. 

(Image: @CovertShores/Twitter)

The USA's Marine Mammal Programme 

The United States Navy, like Russia, has been training sea animals, including dolphins, rays, sharks, turtles and sea birds in its military since 1959 under the US Navy Marine Mammal Program. US military has also been training California sea lions at the base in Point Loma, San Diego since the 1960s. Sea lions were used by the American military to guard warships in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, and Bahrain, and to search naval mines in the Persian Gulf and the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr. To date, the San Diego-based Marine Mammal programme hosts about seventy-five dolphins and thirty sea lions trained by the naval commandos.

“The naval command's idea was to deploy beluga whales at entrances to bays as sentries,” Soviet scientist Gennady Matishov explains in a report. Their main role was to protect the waters of the fleet's principal base against underwater saboteurs.

According to Russia Beyond, Moscow operates a mammal training centre in Murmansk, northern Russia and in Sevastopol in Crimea. The two top-secret centres are named The Murmansk Marine Biological Institute and the Sevastopol Oceanarium. Each dolphin costs the Russian military 350,000 rubles ($6,150).